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REVIEWS. 



In 12mo. cloth, lettered^ price 2s., Third Thousand. 

THOUGHTS UPON THOUGHT, 

FORYOUNGMEN. 



" We should rejoice to find it in the hands of every young 
man in the empire." — Christian JExaminer. 

" It has high claims, especially on the attention of educated 
young men, for whose benefit it was principally written." — 
Fatriot. 

*' The work is especially addressed to young men ; we con- 
fess they need it. We recommend them to consult ' Thoughts 
upon Thought.' " — Evangelical Magazine. 

" The intrinsic merit of this unpretending httle volume can 
scarcely fail to secure its extensive circulation." — JEclectic 
Meview. 

" No one can thoughtfully consult this work without rising 
from its perusal a wiser, if not a better man." — Manchester 
Times. 

" It is a book of intellectual gems, and cannot fail to enrich 
the reader." — General Advertiser. 

" It would be a valuable present for any young person who 
would read it with the attention it deserves." — Watchman. 

" It would not dishonour any living philosopher." — General 
Baptist Repository. 

" It is suited especially for readers of a contemplative turn 
of mind, and is likely to prove useful to the young inquirer 
after truth." — Independent Magazine. 

" This is a book we can cordially recommend." — Baptist 
Magazine. 

" We think that few will read this valuable work without 
receiving benefit from its contents. We doubt not, that 
' Thoughts upon Thought' will be much more in request 
among the thoughtful, than among the thoughtless." — Sunday 
School Teachers' Magazine. 



THOUGHTS UPON THOUGHT. 



JIOBEKT K. BUST, PEINTEB, 
HOLBOEN HILL. 



THOUGHTS UPON THOUGHT. 



FOR YOUNG MEN. 



IN FOUR PAETS. 



Tpd(p(t) vf.u.v^ vsavicTicoi^ otl vEVLKh,\\.aTe tov Trovripov. 

I write to yon, young men, because ye have overcome the evil one. 

1 JcHX ii. 13. 



/ f ^ ' BY THE 

EEt.}DE. HEWLETT, 

AUTHOR OF ' TH0UGKT3 OX THE HOLY SPIRIT AXB HIS WORK,' 
BIBLE DIEFICULTIE3 EXFLATXED,' ETC. 



SIXTH EDiTION. 




London : Simpkin, Marshall^ & Co. Edinburgh : 
Oliyer & Boyd. Dublin: Hodges, SMiTH/tfe Co. 
Glasgow ; Porteous brothers. 



PEEFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. 



This little volume originated in an humble effort 
to benefit the young men in a provincial city, where 
the Author for some years resided. In a course of 
lectures he delivered, on topics adapted to the 
mental and moral condition of the young, the three 
following formed a prominent part of the course ; 
viz., " The Eesponsibility of Man in Eolation to 
his Thoughts," " The Government of the Thoughts," 
and " The Influence of Thought on the Tormation 
of Character.*' These lectures were heard with 
more than ordinary interest. Some who heard them 
are now honoured and faithful Ministers of the 
Gospel. 

The "Thoughts " contained in the lectures were 
revised, and presented to the public in the form in 
which they now appear. 

The work has been read by parties of all deno- 
minations. It has been impartially reviewed. The 
critics, for the most part, have recorded their suf- 
frages in its favour. 



vm PEEFACE TO THE PIETH EDITION". 

The reasons which induced the Author to with- 
hold his name, in the former editions, do not now 
exist, and a powerful reason has arisen (another 
person having pretended to be the writer of these 
pages), which obliges the Author to make known 
his name in this edition. 

An additional part, On the Influence of Mental 
Habits on Individual Physiognomy " appears in 
the present edition, as an Appropriate sequel to 
Part III., " On the Influence of Thought in the 
Formation of Character." It is hoped that this 
Part will, by the Divine blessing, enhance the value 
and usefulness of the work. 

The Author records his gratitude to the Giver of 
all Grood, that the work has already been productive 
of lasting benefit in many instances. 

That it may please Almighty God graciously to 
continue his blessing to this effort for his glory, and 
make it increasingly useful to assist many minds in 
the important work of governing their thoughts, 
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is the 
fervent prayer of the Author, 

J. Geigg Hewlett. 

London^ January, 1862. 



CONTENTS, 



PAET I. 

ON THE EESPONSIBILITY OE MAN IN EEIATION TO HIS 
THOUGHTS. 

Page 

^ Introductory Eemarks ... ... ... 13 

Sect. I. The different Characteristics of Thought ; what 

are, and what are not, a Man's oz(;?^ Thoughts 18 

II. Greneral Principles on which Eesponsibility rests 21 

III. The question of Responsibility, in relation to 

the Thoughts, stated ... ... ... 23 

lY. The Connexion of Thought with Conduct and 

Character 24 

V. Consciousness and Volition essential to Ees- 

ponsibility ... ... ... ... ... 28 

YI. Thoughts, the Objects of G-od's special Cog- 
nisance ... ... ... ... ,89 

YII. The Law of God legislates for the Thoughts . ' ^ 
YIII. Christ's Exposition of the Law 50 



X 



CONTENTS. 



Page 



IX. Express Decisions that Thoughts are ame- 

nable to the Law of God ... ... 53 

X. The Eevolution of the Thoughts in Conversion 57 
XI. Facts, showing that the Moral Grovernment of 

Grod has been administered on the Principle 

of Man's Accountability for his Thoughts . 60 

XII. The Extent of this Responsibility 66 

An Appeal to Young Men ... ... ... 68 

PAET 11. 

ON THE aOTEENMENT OF THE THOUGHTS. 

Sect. I. General Remarks on the Government of the 

Thoughts 71 

II. Government of the Thoughts defined ... 77 

III. Reasons for the Government of the Thoughts 79 

The Moral Aspect of the Thoughts ... 79 

Their original Dignity ... ... . 81 

This Government is attainable ... ... 83 

This Government is enjoined by Divine 

Authority ... 84 

lY. Means for the Government of the Thoughts 86 

Examination ... ... ... ... 86 

Pre- occupation of the Thoughts ... ... 91 

A vigilant and restrictive Guard over the 

Passions ... ... ... ... ... 101 

Decisive Perseverance in establishing and 

maintaining this Government ... ... 112 

Constant Recognition of the Divine Omni- 
science ... ... ... ... ... 118 

Fervent Prayer for the Aid of the Holy Spirit 124 



CONTENTS. 



XI 



PAET III. 

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THOUaHT IN THE FORMATION OF 
CHAEACTEE. 

Page 

Sect. I. The Scriptural Yiew of the Question ... 129 

II. Motion and Influence traceable to Mind . . . 133 

III. Any given Kind of Thinking produces corre- 

spondiag Principles... ... ... ... 136 

IV. Thinking develops Habits ... ... ... 143 

Y. Principles and Habits constitute Character... 145 

Physically ... ... 145 

Intellectually 150 

Morally 153 

Influence of Thoughts on Dreaming. . . ... 157 

YI. The Influence of Thought in the Social Circle 160 

The Brother's Influence 162 

The Companion's Influence ... ... 162 

The Influence of the Minister of Eeligion 164 

The Mother's Influence 165 

YII. Illustrations of the Principle 166 



PAET lY. 



THE INFLUENCE OF MENTAL HABITS ON INDIYIDUAL 
PHYSIO&NOMY ... 



169 



THOUGHTS UPON THOUGHT. 



PAET I. 

ox THE EESPONSIBILITY OF MAN IN RELATION 
TO HIS THOUGHTS. 

intkoductokt eemaeks. — the different chaeacteristics of 
thought; what are, and what are not a avian's own- 
thoughts— general PRINCIPLES ON WHICH RESPONSIBILITY 
RESTS— THE QUESTION OF RESPONSIBILITY, IN RELATION TO 
THE THOUGHTS, STATED— THE CONNEXION OF THOUGHT WITH 
CONDUCT AND CHARACTER— CONSCIOUSNESS AND VOLITION 
ESSENTIAL TO RESPONSIBILITY— THOUGHTS, THE OBJECTS OF 
god's SPECIAL COGNISANCE — THE LAW OF GOD LEGISLATES 
FOR THE THOUGHTS — CHRIST'S EXPOSITION OF THE LAW — 
EXPRESS DECISIONS THAT THOUGHTS ARE AMENABLE TO THE 
LAW OF GOD — THE REVOLUTION OF THE THOUGHTS IN CON- 
VERSION—FACTS, SHOWING THAT THE MORAL GOVERNMENT OF 
GOD HAS BEEN AD^HNISTERED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF MAN'S 
ACCOUNTABILITY FOR HIS THOUGHTS — THE EXTENT OF THIS 
RESPONSIBILITY; AN APPEAL TO YOUNG MEN. 

Teat man thinks, and that his thoughts have 
a great influence on individual and social happi- 
ness, are facts readily admitted beyond any dis- 
pute. It is therefore of great importance that 

B 



0]S^ THE J1ESP0]S^SIBTL1TY OF HAN 



all the motiyes and means, which may concur to 
promote the improvement of the thoughts, may 
be known and employed. Few things are more 
wonderful in variableness and achievement than 
the thoughts of man. Sometimes they appear 
like a chaotic mass, — the elements of good and 
evil mysteriously commingled : at other times they 
appear like the world when, at its Creator's bidding, 
it rose into harmony and beauty. The former is 
most frequently the state of the thoughts where 
facilities for education and mental discipline have 
been either not attainable or not improved; the 
latter, where a diligent perseverance has sought, 
obtained, and improved the means for acquiring a 
constant control 6ver the mind and its varied 
resources. An exception may now and then appear, 
in a mind of but little culture, possessing extraor- 
dinary vigour, activity, and inherent love of order, 
marshalling and directing thoughts against some 
stronghold of error, with all the ease and effect, as 
a skilful and experienced general arranges and 
directs his forces against the fortifications of his 
adversary. A mind of this order may enchant by 
lis beauteous imaginings and harmony of genuine 



IN BELATIOIT TO HIS THOrGHTS. 15 

poetry, — delight by its touchiog and dramatic 
sketches, or convince by its lucid and conclusive 
reasonings. Such is the province, and such are 
the doings of untaught genius. A mind over- 
rating its original ability, prevents future improve- 
ment ; while genius of the highest order most 
generally manifests an ardent desire to enhance its 
strength, augment its resources, and prepare for 
active service on the arena of mental conflict. 
And those vrho can make no great pretensions to 
original superiority, may acquire an extensive in- 
fluence over their own mental territory, and the 
region of mind in general, by an early, diligent, 
judicious training of the thoughts. By this means, 
the one talent of original mental power gains ten 
other talents ; while the mind possessing several 
talents, through a listless indifference and indo- 
lence withers the hopes of expected superiority, 
sinks into a dwarfish diminutiveness, and retains 
only so much of mind as is enough to exempt the 
possessor from the sentence of idiocy. " The dili- 
gent hand maketh rich," is a proverb not less 
applicable to mental than to material wealth. And 
in both, the slothful servant learns by experience 



16 OK THE EESPOKSIBILITT Of MAT^" 



better than commentators can teach, the fearful 
meaning of the parable, that " from him that hath 
not, even that he hath shall be taken away from 
him." — Ijuke xix. 26. 

Attention to the intellectual character of Thought 
is of great importance, and every consideration 
urges it to be kept constantly in view, by young 
men, in their mutual intercourse; not only as a 
pleasing occupation of time, and as a means for 
mind knowing and appreciating mind, but as a 
stimulus and facility to a great end — mental im- 
provement. It is by this, that the influence of 
suggestion in the production of thought, — the na- 
ture of thought itself, — the connexion of one 
thought with another, — and the manner of regu- 
lating and controlling thought, will be better under- 
stood. It is almost impossible to think and write 
on thought without noticing, to a greater or less 
degree, the intellectual processes involved in the 
production of thought. Yet, it is not so much 
with the intellectual, as with the moral character of 
thought, that these pages have to do. 

Upon the varied circumstances, which contribute 
to the production of thoughts, and the process 



IN BELATIO:^^ TO HIS THOUGHTS. 



17 



being perfectly consonant with those engagements 
to which a large number of young men in this 
country, and especially in the metropolis, are de- 
voted, may here be introduced a passage from an 
essay by a celebrated author. Let there be fixed 
in their minds so many ideas as might be imparted 
by a comparatively humble education, (one quite 
compatible with a life of ordinary employment,) 
and, even, involuntarily, the thoughts would often 
recur to these subjects, in those moments and hours 
when the manual occupation can, and actually will, 
be prosecuted with but little of exclusive attention. 
Slight incidents, casual expressions, would some- 
times suggest these subjects ; by association they 
would suggest one another. The mere reaction of 
a somewhat cultivated spirit against invading dul- 
ness, might recall some of the more amusing and 
elating ones ; and they would fall like a gleam 
of sunshine on the imagination. An emotion of 
conscience, a self-reflection, — an occurring question 
of duty, — a monitory sensation of defective health, 
would sometimes awaken serious and solemn ones." 
The mind might thus go a great way, to recreate 
or profit itself, and, on coming back again, find all 



18 



OK THE RESPOT^^SIBILITY OE MAT? 



the affairs of business unimpaired and flourishing. 
There are, doubtless, some occupations which will 
not allow of these pursuits of thought during the 
hours of business ; yet there are many more, which 
are exceedingly favourable to the indulgence of 
trains of thought, without any damage to the 
secular business in which an individual may be 
eD gaged. Yea, the very intercourse with society — 
the developments of human character — the habits 
and principles of men in different situations, and 
the predominant likeness in all, — may often concur 
to induce and sustain a vigorous succession of 
thoughts. 



SECTIO^s^ I. 

There are not a few minds, like plants of the 
mimosa tribe, so sensitive and so susceptible, as 
to vibrate and collapse at every passing object, 
and they either retain for a long time the form and 
the state produced, or, invigorated by the action, 
promptly re-assume their accustomed appearance, 
only to recognise more quickly, and more keenly, 
the next agent that may approach. With this 



IN" RELATION" TO HIS THOUGHTS. 



19 



sensitiveness and susceptibility, so characteristic 
of many minds — the number of agents ever at 
work — the activity and observation inseparable 
from mind, it may be here inquired, Are all the 
thoughts which are recognised by the mind pro- 
perly its onm ? — or, Does the fact of the mere 
existence of a thought in a mind constitute its 
identity with that mind ? These inquiries refer, 
not so much to the intellectual, as to the moral 
character of thought. The importance of these 
inquiries will be readily admitted. The want of a 
satisfactory solution to them has prodilced, in some 
minds, a delusive self-complacency, and, in others, 
a sadness and depression, for which no legitimate 
cause existed. The man of profane character has, 
in the hour of sickness and approaching mortality, 
flattered himself that he was a pious man, because 
he recollects that, amidst the howling tempest and 
raging billows, or in some other alarming mani- 
festations of the Divine power, he has had some 
thoughts of Grod ; and it may be that at the grave 
of his child, or of his friend, he thought of Grod, 
the soul, and eternity. And the man of decided 
and eminent piety has been deeply dejected and 



20 OI^" THE EESPONSIBILITY OF MAIS' 

overwhelmed with doubt, because he has discovered 
unbelieving and rebellious thoughts, and concluded 
that his piety was a mere delusion ; whereas these 
thoughts were not strictly his own, but the tares 
an enemy had sown ; they were traceable to evil 
suggestions, from the lingering influence of a de- 
praved nature within, — from biliary derangement, 
or from influences without. The human mind is 
an ever- working machine, acted on by innumerable 
internal and external agencies. Thoughts, in almost 
countless variety, are the objects of its constant 
and perpetual cognisance. Some of the thoughts 
are transient and migratory, and no more identify 
themselves with the mind itself, than any given 
sounds identify themselves with an instrument, 
after the strobes which brought them into being, 
and the vibrations in which they were heard, have 
subsided. The mind, moving in a region of 
thought, will uniformly exhibit its own moral 
affinity, — its delight to entertain those sugges- 
tions and thoughts which congenialise with its 
own character. If the mind be under a holy bias, 
it will spurn and reject evil thoughts, while the 
same mind will cherish pure and hallowed thoughts, 



IN RELATION TO HIS THOUGHTS. 



21 



with a delight proportionate to the aversion it 
displayed in rejecting thoughts of an opposite 
character. 

The thouglits tvJiich are 'properly a man^s own, are 
those which he approves, entertains^ and cherishes, 

SECTION II. 

Though the object of this section is not to 
discuss the general question of human responsi- 
bility, yet it may be well to notice the general 
principles on which that doctrine rests. Among 
these are — 

The existence of some perfect standard of moral 
excellence, viz., the mind or will of the Grovernor 
of the universe, — of which the code of morals 
contained in the volume of revelation is a true 
transcript. 

The right of God to govern his own world, 
and to have a measure of obedience from all intel- 
ligent agents, commensurate with their intellectual 
capacities. 

The recognition and approval of this standard, 
and this right, by the human conscience. 



22 ON THE EESPONSTBILITT OF lUK 

The existence, both in the minds of barbarian 
and civilised men, of anticipation of some good 
when right has been done, and the apprehension of 
some evil when wrong has been committed. 

The admitted character of man, — not a mere 
machine of circumstance, or the tool of an inevi- 
table fate ; but an intelligent, voluntary agent, 
capable of weighing motives, and of choosing, re- 
jecting, and determining conduct. 

The acknowledgment made by the members of 
every voluntary association of their individual obliga- 
tion to obey existing laws, or endure known penal- 
ties. This is a practical admission of the respon- 
sibility of man to ma^ ; and the same principle is 
applicable to man's responsibility to the Supreme 
Governor. 

The principles applicable to the question of 
human responsibility generally, are not less so in 
their application to the subject under considera- 
tion. In addition to these, there are others which 
may specifically apply to the responsibility of man 
in relation to his thoughts. 



IS DELATION TO ITIS THOrOHTS. 



23 



SECTION III. 

It is not contended that man is responsible for 
every migratory thought that passes through his 
mind, which may be like the cloud, for a moment 
flinging its shadow on the mountain top, and leav- 
ing no impression behind, — though even the most 
casual thoughts are not so fortuitous in their origin 
and uncertain in their character as many minds 
imagine, but are in some measure the result and 
index of former culture or neglect. But for those 
thoughts which are recognised, approved, and 
cherished^ these are the germs of emotions, princi- 
ples, actions, habits, and character ; and for these, 
man is responsible. Thinking is perpetual. And 
the conscious thinkings are the attitudes and doings 
of the mind. 

That man is responsible for his conduct, is 
admitted by many, who at the same time are 
unwilling to admit that he is responsible for his 
thoughts. 

Such an opinion is repudiated by the processes 
in the courts of human judicature, where the prime 



24 



0]S" THE HESPONSIBILITT OF MAN 



object is to search out the thoughts and designs of 
the accused, in any given case ; as when one man 
has put to death another, if it can be proved that 
there was an entire absence of "malice prepense" 
on the part of the perpetrator of the deed, the 
simple act is treated as a venial offence ; if, on the 
contrary, it can be shown that " malice prepense" 
prompted the deed, the perpetrator is convicted of 
a capital offence. The same principle was admitted 
in the jurisprudence of Ancient Eome. Cicero's 
speech for Milo admitted the crime ; but pleaded 
the absence of a malicious motive, and the rightness 
of self-defence. ^ 

To those who imagine that man is accountable 
for his conduct only, and not for his thoughts, the 
following considerations are submitted. 

SECTION IV. 

The connexion of tJiougJit with conduct and cha' 
racter needs to be only examined, and it WA\ 

* Ab mimicorum auclacia teHsque vitam ut impune liceat 
defendere. Cic. Oratio pro T. A. Milone. 



IN EELATIOIS" TO HIS THOUGHTS. 25 

evidently appear, that the argument for the re- 
sponsibility of thought is manifold weightier than 
any argument for the responsibility of conduct, 
since the conduct is the mere palpable form, in 
which thought is embodied, while the thought is 
the spirit, — the vitality, — the essential moral being 
of that form. 

Sometimes the conduct may very inadequately 
represent the sinfulness, or the moral excellence of 
the thought it is employed to set forth ; at other 
times the conduct may be viewed through a 
medium coloured by the prejudice, bigotry, or some 
other passion of the observer. All conduct receives 
its character from the motive by which it is regu- 
lated ; and the motive and the thought are too 
closely allied to admit of separation in any moral 
estimate. The mind has its own actings ; and 
these are supposed to be anterior to any external 
deeds. "Words and deeds are but the second 
editions of works, originally produced in the regions 
of thought. Some thoughts, like some literary 
productions, are intended for private use, and never 
reach a second edition, while others pass through 
edition after edition with astonishing rapidity, and 



2(5 



ON THE RESPONSIBILITY OE MAN 



their influence moves the inhabitants of both hemi- 
spheres. 

Thousands of thoughts are never breathed in 
air, nor embodied in deeds, which, however, are 
telling mightily in their influence on the mind in 
which they originate, and on the character to 
which they belong. They carry on the busy scenes 
of a life more real, more unsophisticated, and make 
impressions more indelible than any of those 
scenes which meet the eye. 

" 'Tis thus the soul speaks to itself alone : 
In that unspoken tongue, that mighty tone, 
Which never hand of flesh hath placed on scroll, 
Doth spirit speak to spirit, soul to soul ! 
Losing of common tongues all exercise. 
On this, the lonely soul for cheer relies." 

Ay, many of the highest enjoyments, and many 
of the deepest sorrows are known in solitude, and 
ia the absorbing atmosphere of thoughtfulness. 
The moral complexion of thought, as it has been 
seen in retirement and reflection, has conveyed 
more valuable lessons on self-knowledge than any 
other instructor, apart from the Spirit of Grod. 
Man has judged of his own wickedne^^s by "the 



m EELATION TO HIS THOUaHTS. 27 



mischief he hath devised.'^ And under the thrill- 
ing emotions produced by such a discoyery, and 
the awful weight of responsibility involved, the 
king of Israel exclaimed, " I hate vain thoughts." 
He had known by painful experience, and had 
lamented with bitter repentance, the connexion of 
impure thoughts with conduct, which stained his 
character, wrecked his piety, and destroyed his 
peace. Hence his constant caution and prayer 
against vain and wicked thoughts, to prevent the 
incipient process of sin, as the best means of 
preventing degrading and sinful conduct. " Ohsta 
princijpiis,^' — " Prevent beginnings," is an excel- 
lent maxim ever to be observed, in morals as well 
as in medicine. 

If the connexion of thought with conduct be 
admitted, and the thoughts are kept under a 
prayerful vigilance, the character and deportment 
will be comparatively secure against all immoral 
seductions. 



28 OlSr THE EESPOis^SIBILITT OF MAT?" 



SECTION Y. 

Consciousness and volition are essential to con- 
stitute a responsible being. So far as they extend, 
and so long as they exist, so are the limits of 
responsibility. It may not be difficult to show, 
that thought, in all its variety, comes within their 
influence. Many, even the most spontaneous 
thoughts, are recognised, and their moral character 
discovered in their very earliest being, and others 
are deliberately and designedly originated, under 
the influence of a decisive preference for their 
character. For this purpose, books, companions, 
conversations, and circumstances, are chosen or 
avoided, as they may be friendly, or inimical to 
the train of thought desired ; for this purpose, 
the senses and the power of suggestion are called 
to afibrd their aid. And the remedy, to coun- 
teract any train of thought not approved, has 
ever been, to resort to a known method, by which 
a train of thought of an opposite character may 
be ensured. The poet cultivates an enlarged 
acquaintance with the productions of the imagina- 
tion, while the philosopher consults those writers 



Ilf RELATION TO HIS THOUaHTS. 29 



who are remarkable for their depth of research 
in science, and for the soundness of their rea- 
soning. 

Thus did the Psalmist : "I hate vain thoughts" 
— these were his annoyance ; " but thy law do I 
love:" — this law contained God's thoughts, and 
the introduction and meditation of these, induced 
thoughts more consonant with the best wishes 
and best principles of his heart. The poet and 
the philosopher adopt similar methods to secure 
a desired train of thought. The good man has 
resorted to the same means, when he has been 
surprised by discovering the roaming of his fancy, 
— ^the wandering of his heart. How often has the 
flush crimsoned the cheek, from no external 
cause, but from the consciousness of certain 
thoughts working within; or, as often, the pale- 
ness of anguish has gathered on the brow, while 
the mind has recognised the vileness of its own 
thoughts, — has formed the resolve that they 
should perish or depart, and has groaned in the 
struggle, saying, " Oh, wretched man that I am, 
who shall deliver me from the body of this 
death?" 

0 



80 OUT THE EESPOTfSIBILITT OF MA^C 

The mind illustrates the great secret of per- 
petual motion. Thought is perpetual. Untiring 
activity is its distinguishing characteristic. Unlike 
the material frame in which it dwells, it never 
slumbers. During the time of sleep, conscious- 
ness of mental operations and volition are sus- 
pended, and hence man is not accountable for 
his dreams. In sleep, the mind runs on like a 
vessel drifted before the wind and tide, till it 
grates over some shoal, when the ^helmsman, 
roused from his torpor, looks to his compass and 
chart, and rights about his bark, and uses the 
breeze and the wave to bring him to his desired 
haven : so the very dreams of morning, after the 
repose of night, close by consciousness returning 
to its oflBce, and availing itself of the very im- 
petus that the mind has received to guide it to 
some wise and good purpose. "With conscious- 
ness, accountableness returns. The exception 
from responsibility during sleep, establishes the 
rule of man's accountability during his waking 
hours. The same exception may be put in for 
the idiot, and the maniac; any man proving his 
title to either of these characters, of course, 



IN RELATION TO HIS THOUGHTS. 31 

will be fully indemnified from responsibility of 
thought, word, and action. Idiocy and madness 
are afflictions, in some cases, traceable only to 
a wise, though mysterious providence, — yet, in 
many other cases, they may be clearly seen as the 
necessary consequences of a recklessness of thought 
and conduct previously indulged. It will be 
found that the man who, in all the vigour of 
bodily and mental health, began to indulge in the 
occasional glass, and went on by degrees till at 
length he gave himself up to immoderate drinking, 
has deliberately and voluntarily disturbed his 
reason, — withered his moral energies, — acquired 
a temporary insanity, or secured to himself the 
inheritance of a confirmed idiocy. "Were the 
wretched inmates of the numerous asylums in 
this country to be favoured with a lucid interval, 
and each to relate his history, — many would point 
to the intoxicating liquor as the proximate and ex- 
citing cause of their malady. Young men, buoyant 
in your spirits, vigorous in your reason, and vivid 
in your imaginations, if you would wish to live 
to a good old age, cheerful, intelligent, and influ- 
ential, with the hoary head, a crown of glory," 



S2 OJT THE EESPOWSTBILITT OF MAIf 



beware of the least approach to the demon of 
intoxication, whose infatuating influence makes 
men suicides of their nobler and intellectual 
being, — of their immortal souls ; the scatterers of 
pestilence and death in their social and domestic 
circles. Before " delirium tremens*' has weakened 
the sentient faculty, before the first stupor has 
benumbed your fine and delicate feelings, hear 
the exhortation of the wise man. "Who hath 
woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath contentions ? 
who hath babbling? who hath wounds w'ithout 
cause ? who hath redness of eyes ? They that 
tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek 
mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when 
it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, 
when it moveth itself aright. At the last it 
biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine 
heart shall %itter perverse things,''^ Eemember, 
that yielding to this sin, you seal up your past 
iniquities as a record against you, — curtail the 
period of your consciousness and volition, — close 
the avenues to repentance, by rendering yourself 
incompetent to think consecutively and feelingly, 



Iir RELATION TO HIS THOUaHTS. 



33 



— destroy any inclination to pray sincerely and 
fervently, and to turn unto Grod. 

And there is another sin which abounds in the 
Metropolis, where the multitude seems to afford a 
cover from the discovery of its existence, and 
an apology for its enormity, — a sin to which 
many are addicted, — a sin which, by its influence 
on the physical constitution of the man, enervates 
the brain and lessens the moral sensibility. That 
many young men fall, ruined by this vice, physi- 
cians can testify. It has been described by one 
who had known, by painful experience, its baneful 
effects in diminishing the power of consciousness 
and volition. 

"I waive the quantum of the sin, 
The hazard of concealing ; 
But, Och ! it ha/rdens all within, 
And pc^n^ the feeling." 

To guard against this sin, it is very desirable that 
a virtuous attachment should be formed with 
a view to marriage. This is one means which 
may prevent the " illicit rove." And then to seek 
the guidance and influence of that Spirit, whose 



84 ON THE EESPONSTBILITT OE MAK 



operations all concur to produce purity of thought, 
imagination, feeling, principle, and conduct. An 
impure imagination is the n^ampire of the soul, 
benumbing its sensibility and drinking up the 
life-blood of its strength. Let consciousness and 
volition be preserved unimpaired and invigorated, 
as the essential means to vigilance over the 
thoughts. 

The increased enlightenment of the understand- 
ing and the conscience cannot be kept too con- 
stantly in view, that every facility to the legitimate 
and most salutary exercise of consciousness and vo- 
lition may be afforded. Ignorance may be adduced 
as a palliation of sin, when it can be proved that 
opportunities for the acquisition of knowledge 
have not come within the reach of the individual ; 
but ignorance is an aggravation to sin, when it 
is evident that such opportunities have been 
wilfully neglected. And hence the displeasure 
of Heaven against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 

because ye have not known," even when all the 
richest facilities had been granted. Ample know- 
ledge will be a most valuable auxiliary to the 
enlightened use of consciousness and volition, in 



IN RELATION TO HIS THOUGHTS. 



35 



their relation to the thoughts. As Simonides 
said to Pausaaias, so conscience says to every 
youth, " Eemember thou art a man. And for man 
not to grasp at all laudable means for mental 
and moral improvement within his reach, is a 
dishonour to human nature and a disobedience 
to the Divine; for as Heaven does nothing in 
vain, its gift of talents implies an injunction of 
their use." Knowledge is the aliment and seed of 
thought. " Por tbe soul to be without knowledge, 
is not good." The mind without knowledge is 
like the dreary morass or weedy desert, — the 
thoughts are few in number, or worthless in 
kind. None would admire a mind in this con- 
dition, in preference to one cultivated and pro- 
ductive of sanative, vivifying, seminal thoughts, — 
thoughts that purify and improve, — thoughts that 
cheer and invigorate, — thoughts that induce other 
minds to think easily, consecutively, and strongly. 
" Gret wisdom : and with all thy getting, get 
understanding." 

It is much to be regretted, that many intelli- 
gent and religious men do not allow the young 
men in their employment some portion of time 



36 ON THE EESPOFSIBILITY OP MAIS' 



for the purposes of mental and moral culture. 
Masters, in the end, would be the benefited party, 
by having an improved class of young men to 
attend to business.* And though the objection 
may be urged, that soine would not improve lei- 
sure, (if granted for the high and important pur- 
poses specified,) yet, it is unreasonable, that the 
many should suffer for the indiscretion and un- 
principled conduct of the few. If it be incum- 
bent on young men to cultivate their mental and 
moral faculties, — and none will deny this, — then 

. * When the question of opening the London ajid Birming- 
ham railroad on the Sabbath was discussed at a meeting of 
directors in Birmingham, Mr. Sturge entered his protest 
against Sabbath traffic, and rested the whole of his objection 
upon an argument to this effect : " If we induce men to violate 
the law of God, and to trifle with the highest authority, in 
serving us, on what ground can we expect those men to be 
obedient to our authority, and faithful to our trust? "We 
should be offering a powerful inducement to men of no prin- 
ciple to engage in our service, and be putting a great obstacle 
against the services of men of sound moral principle. Men in 
business would find those young men most valuable, who had 
time, and improved it, for their intellectual and moral culture ; 
while the mere drudge of sixteen hours would seek his plea- 
sure in the tavern, or some other haunt of wickedness. 



m EELATIOlf TO HIS THOTJGHTS. 37 

will it follow, that the employer who would 
voluntarily throw any obstacle in the way to the 
attainment of that end, incurs a fearful weight 
of responsibility. Next to the duty of seeking 
our own salvation, is the duty of affording to 
others (especially for those who are a part of the 
same household) every facility for securing their 
eternal welfare. And the mind receives impres- 
sions more lasting and influential from the facts 
it vritnesses, than from the lessons it hears. 
Young men will more powerfully feel their respon- 
sibility to their employers, when they witness 
their employers recognising the higher respon- 
sibility of young men to Grod, who gave them 
their mind, and other talents, to improve. But, 
independently of the benefits to be derived, both 
by the employer and the employed, the whole 
question must rest upon the responsibility of any 
individual, for the present and eternal welfare 
of those committed to his care; at least, so far 
as that welfare can be promoted and secured by 
his influence. 

This digression may be tolerated, when the fact 
is admitted, that, in all human probability, many 



38 



ON THE EESPOifSIBILlTY OF MAIS' 



who are now suffering from the late-TiouT system^ 
will soon become masters. And when this pro- 
motion takes place, and the once wearied, jaded 
shopman gets out of his bondage, and begins to 
enjoy his liberty, he may need the exhortation, 
Eemember the stranger ; for thou thyself wert 
a stranger in the land of Egypt." The elasticity 
of the human mind displays itself most when 
bounding from some scene of suffering under which 
it almost sunk, it seems (amidst scenes of enjoy- 
ment) almost to forget that such a class of sorrows 
ever had an existence. AYe look for sympathy, 
and we find indifference. Care need be constantly 

* " Thousands are languishing under the system ; thousands 
under its action are dying ; and thousands are, beneath its 
witheriQg influence, sacrificing every prospect of eternal happi- 
ness. It may be a slight inconvenience to come early ; but let 
this be endui'ed : it is but small, when weighed in the balances 
against the misery and degradation from which these thousands 
would be rescued. Let this be done by the customer, and the 
shops would necessarily be closed from want of a motive for 
keeping them open. Then would the di^aper's assistant, ha^^ng 
leisure to mature his intellectual faculties and practise the pre- 
cepts of virtue, become fitted to adorn society, and would 
assume his legitimate station amongst his fellow- creatures as a 
man and a Chiistian," 



IN EELATIOjS^ to his THOUaHTS. 



39 



exercised against every tendency to diminish the 
delicacy of feeling, — the benumbing process com- 
menced, goes on till consciousness loses much of 
its promptness and acute perception, if not its 
power, to observe the thoughts. 

SECTION VI. 

The responsibility of man for his thoughts will 
further appear from the evidence afforded, that 
God takes special cognisance of the thoughts, and, 
as the Moral Governor, expresses complacency or 
disapprobation towards them, according to their 
character. 

In this view, the inspired writers agree. Job 
says, I know that no thought can be withholden 
from thee." David says, "Thou understandest 
my thought afar off." Grod expressed his appro- 
bation of David, when he said unto him, " It was 
well that it was in thine hearV^ (in thy thoughts 
and designs) " to build a house unto me." And 
when Jehovah reproved the sinner, after enume- 
rating the several transgressions, as though he 
traced them all to the thoughts of the heart, 



40 THE RESPOlsrSlBILITr OE MAK 

he said, " Thou tliougbtest that I was altogether 
as thyself : but I will reprove thee, and set them 
in order before thee." " And God saw that the 
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and 
that every imagination of the thoughts of his 
heart was only evil continually." " The Lord 
searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the 
imaginations of the thoughts." " For |I know the 
things that came into your mind, every one of 
them." " How long shall thy vain thoughts 
lodge within thee?" To these might be added 
many other proofs of the Divine cognisance of the 
thoughts ; but these, for the present, may sujfice. 

It is a mean and unworthy conception of the 
Deity, that would limit his attention to words and 
deeds. Thoughts are the living creatures that 
talk and negotiate with God. He knows their 
language, and comprehends their every move- 
ment. This is his province — this his preroga- 
tive; and, on this prerogative, none can, none 
dare encroach. The close observer, — the keenest 
scrutiniser of human nature, often finds that his 
guesses at the thoughts of his fellow-being are 
vague, indefinite, and erroneous. God never errs. 



IN RELATION TO HIS THOUOHTS. 41 



He looks on the whole miscellaneous crowd of 
thoughts, and recognises the character of each, as 
accurately as if it were the only one on which 
his scrutinising glance was fixed. How varied 
are the scenes, how diversified the attitudes of 
thoughts presented to his observing eye! At 
one time thoughts are observed by him in peni- 
tential garb and posture, — directed towards his 
altar, and breathing petitions for pardon and for- 
giveness, — having no sacrifice but a broken heart, 
— and no incense but the sighs of penitence, — ■ 
and no blood but that which the Gospel reveals 
and the eye of faith beholds ; yet on such thoughts 
the Grod of holiness bestows his smile, and says, 
" The sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, I 
will not despise." 

At other times, the thoughts are seen hovering 
round the throne of God, like children recipro- 
cating a fond parent's love, — renewing their con- 
fidence, — gaining a higher moral elevation, — losing 
the cares of earth in heaven's enjoyments, — and 
feeling the reality, 

" That a correspondence fixed with Heaven, 
Is sure the soul's best anchor." 



42 OK THE EESPONSIBILITT OF MAK 

These communings of thought with God are not 
unnoticed. Thus Enoch " walked with God." 
And " he had this testimony, that he pleased 
God." So may the thoughts be fervent in spirit^ 
serving God, while the hands are diligent in 
business. Here are thoughts, as they glow in a 
mind, or as they thrill in a heart, under a hal- 
lowing influence. The heart, untouched by this 
influence, presents a lamentable contrast. Such 
a heart the eye of God has searched out, and 
the result is recorded by One who ever spake the 
truths and never gave utterance to detraction, 
flattery, or folly. And this is the verdict re- 
corded " Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, 
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false wit- 
ness, blasphemies : these are the things which 
defile the man." 

There is scarcely a portion of the world in 
which some manifestations of the Godhead are 
not to be seen, except it be among the many 
thoughts of an unregenerated heart. That is the 
dreary spot from which angels turn away with 
the shudder of abhorrence, — the spot over which 
is written, " No God." It may be that this Ian- 



BELATIOJf TO HIS THOUGHTS. 43 

guage is intended to set forth the hostility of 
the depraved heart, which aims at nothing short 
of the annihilation of God, and the thoughts, 
rallied by this hostility, exclaim, " No God." 
"IN'o God all his thoughts."* 

These are some of the evidences that God 
notices the movements of the thoughts, observes 
their hostile and mutinous positions, — derides their 
rage, — thwarts their puny designs, — and asserts 
his sovereignty, saying, " There are many devices 
in a man's heart; but the counsel of the Lord 
shall stand." " The Lord seeth not as man seeth ; 
for man looketh on the outward appearance, but 
the Lord looketh on the heart." And while his 
glance surveys every thought, is it not the most 
preposterous folly and presumption to allow the 
thinkings of evil to go on, and to acquire strength 
under the influence of the delusion, " God does 
not know, neither doth the Almighty consider it" ? 

Young man, pause, and consider. Thy thoughts 
are ever under the inspection of the God of light, 
of holiness, and of love. If you were in some 



* Psalm X. 4. VnV^STO 



44 ON THE EESPOIfSIBILITT OF MAN 

assembly, where you observed the eye of a being 
fixed upon you ; you knew him not ; but from 
his supernatural appearance, and other reasons, 
you believed that his eye traversed " the path 
that no vulture's eye hath seen," — the whole 
region of thought and emotion, — and that your 
destinies were at his disposal. Whithersoever 
you went, and however you endeavoured to evade 
his glance, his eye seemed to pursue you ; and 
even when you were turned away, and, accord- 
ing to all the ordinary laws of vision, the thing 
would be impossible, yet the eye seemed to be 
constantly before you, — its colour, — its brightness, 
— its expression, — its penetrating power, — all, as 
with a living reality, affected and perpetually 
troubled you. If you conversed with a friend, — 
engaged in your secular employment, — or retired 
into your chamber, — this eye still pursued you, 
and presented itself with a full gaze upon you ; 
if you slumbered, this eye occupied some con- 
spicuous place in every dream, — and when you 
awoke, even in the darkness of midnight, the 
glare of this eye exceeded the brightness of any 
star, and it met your opening eye, beaming on 



IJf KELATION TO HIS THOUGHTS. 45 

you with approbation or frowning on you with 
displeasure. And, though you had no distinct 
views of the ultimate design of this unsleepiDg 
vigilance over you, yet the consciousness of many 
evil tendencies and sinful propensities, and the 
knowledge of the supernal purity of the heavenly 
watcher, might have some influence in inducing 
you to regulate your thoughts in accordance with 
the mind of him, whose eye and constant search- 
ing you could not escape. This is not an empty 
picture of the imagination. The eye of God is 
ever on your heart. It is the reality David 
believed and felt when he exclaimed, Whither 
shall I go from thy spirit ? "Whither shall I 
flee from thy presence ? If I say, Surely the 
darkness shall cover me ; even the nigiit shall 
be light about me. Tea, the darkness hideth not 
from thee ; but the night shineth as the day ; the 
darkness and the light are both alike to thee." 
Thoughts are words and deeds before the all- 
searching Spirit. And shall not He who formed 
the ear, hear ? And shall not He who formed the 
eye, see ? And shall not He who searcheth the 
heart, record the closest transactions of the mind ? 

D 



46 Q-N THE EESPOKSIBILITT OF MAT^ 



SECTION VII. 



The law of God legislates for the thoughts^ is 
another evidence of man's responsibility for his 
thoughts. The law of God is not a code of arbi- 
trary exactions of a capricious tyrant, but the 
faithful transcript of his mind, who is The Eight, 
—The "Wise,— The Just —The Holy One,— and 
to whom no other being can be compared. His 
law is mind legislating for mind. Whether mind 
be found enshrined in human or angelic form, it is 
subjected to the same great principles of unal- 
terable right. In the publication of his law the 
great Legislator, in all his enactments, fixed his 
eye on the heart. He carries his law into the 
inner sanctuary of the soul, and asserts his claims, 
in tbe region of glowing thoughts and ardent affec- 
tions. Amidst these, he engraves his law, in cha- 
racters legible to the eye of conscience. " Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy Grod, with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And 
thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." While 
God receives with delight the humblest offering 
that has in it the energetic thoughts and the warm 



IN RELATION TO HIS THOUGHTS. 



47 



affections of the heart, he spurns from his presence 
the most costly sacrifice that is presented by the 
hand of a cold formality, though this sacrifice may 
seem to be in strict accordance with the letter of 
his own law. Hear his rebuke to his ancient 
people, when their hearts had wandered from him : — 
This people draw near unto me with their mouth, 
and honour me with their lips ; but have removed 
their heart far from me." In this was the odious- 
ness of Phariseeism ; the things they did, — the ser- 
vice they performed, — the obedience they rendered, 
wanted the heart ; and this deficiency no external 
austerities could supply. The lame, the halt, and 
the blind were prohibited for sacrifice. But exter- 
nal service, without the life-blood of thoughts and 
affections, is a dead carcass laid on God's altar. 
An old author has forcibly remarked on this sub- 
ject, " The reason of all is, that Grod being the 
Father of the spirits of all flesh, and the kingdom 
of his Son a spiritual kingdom too, 'tis congruous 
both to the Divine nature and ours, which is a 
stricture of his, that his laws bear sway in our 
spiritual part, in our hearts and souls, our wills and 
affections ; for would we have an infinitely glorious 



48 ON THE EESPOlSrsiEILITT OF 3IA^ 

Spirit served by dull flesh and blood only, and not 
rather lite himself, in spirit and in truth, — with 
those prime productions, — those first-born sons of 
the immortal Jfature in us ? Has Grod made us 
men, and would we pay him but the spiritless 
homage of the animal part of us ? Has he im- 
planted a noble and immortal principle of life and 
motion in us, and shall it not share in our obedience 
to him, and consequently in the guilt of the trans- 
gression of his laws ? He is the natural Lord of 
both soul and body, He has bought them with a 
price, and therefore, all the reason in the world, the 
obedience we pay him should be commensurate to 
the extent of his purchase ; so that, if we have any 
just abhorrence of sin, in the true latitude of the 
Divine construction of it, we must govern our 
thoughts, as well as observe measures in our words 
and actions." 

These remarks are not to be restricted only to 
the higher services of spiritual religion ; but are to 
be a|;plied to the every-day engagements of social in- 
tercourse, and to the workings of the solitary mind 
in reference to the visible and invisible worlds. 
The ordinary pursuits of life gather around them 



IN RELATION TO HIS THOUGHTS. 



49 



the sanctity of religion, wlien the thoughts are in 
subjection to the will of God; and while subordi- 
nate ends are contemplated, yet the principal aim 
in which the thoughts converge is the glory of God, 
To this end the good man will constantly direct 
his attention, under a feeling sense of a present 
God. Whether he serve or suffer, — whether he 
contend with temptations or pains, " he endures, as 
seeing Him who is invisible." In painful contrast 
to this, is the wicked man, among whose thoughts 
God is not ; he, ruled by an absorbing selfism, 
maintains all the appearance of honesty and in- 
tegrity, — without any respect to the law of God, or 
desire for his glory, — and passes in the world for a 
good moral man. This opinion is formed by those 
who can look only at the surface of the man, while 
He who looks on the essential man, — the mind, the 
heart, — pronounces a different verdict, and regards 
him as the great hypocrite, whose whole conduct is at 
variance with the settled and abiding convictions of 
his conscience. Thus setting God at defiance, — the 
man, in the very face of God, tears up the law writ- 
ten on the fleshly tables of the heart. The law was 
made, not for the material instrument, but for the 



50 



THE KESPOIS^SIBILITT OT MAT 



intelligent, thinking, feeling artificer, that models 
and contrives, and completes his own designs. 

SECTIOJ^ Yni. 

In all questions in jurisprudence, the difficulty is, 
in ascertaining the applicability of the existing law 
to the case under consideration. Por this purpose 
the most learned commentators of the law are con- 
sulted. And these frequently supply conflicting 
opinions. "We are favoured with an exposition of 
the law from the lips of Christ, — and for this no 
being in the universe so competent, — it is an expo» 
sition, free from any of the imperfections of human 
productions, — it is, in fact, the Legislator's exposi- 
tion of his own law. 

Here is no thunder's roar, no lightning's glare ^ 
nor trumpet's sound, though these attended the 
first publication of the law. But here is the light of 
the " Sun of Eighteousness.'* Here sins are seen 
in the light of Grod's countenance. The light 
Christ pours upon the law, exhibits sin in its very 
incipient forms, — of thought and emotion ; these 
are seen, just as in the beams of the sun are atoms 



IK RELATION TO HIS THOUGHTS. 51 



seen, — the germs of existence, which otherwise 
would be hidden from ordinary observation. 

Christ most plainly teaches that all the enact- 
ments of the law of Grod were designed to take 
effect in the world of human mind, — this province 
of the vast empire of God, — this region where Grod 
reigns. According to the nature of the Legislator, 
the nature of the obedience he requires. He is a 
Spirit, and the spirit of man is the subject of his 
government, — and the obedience of the thoughts 
of the heart the proof of loyalty which he exacts. 
Two illustrations may be noticed, — the expositions 
of the sixth and seventh commandments. " Thou 
shalt not kill ; and whosoever shall kill shall be in 
danger of the judgment" (or, as the learned Light- 
foot has rendered it, " obnoxious to the punish- 
ment") : " But I say unto you, That whosoever is 
angry with his brother without a cause shall be in 
danger of the judgment." 

" Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say 
unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to 
lust after her hath committed adultery with her 
already in his heart." 

Though in these two commandments the cases 



52 



OlS" THE EESPOKSIBILITT OP MAIS" 



contemplated are different, yet the principle ex- 
hibited in the exposition is precisely the same 
in both cases, — the application of the law to the 
thoughts, desires, and purposes of the heart. Un- 
merited hatred, and unprovoked anger, are trans- 
gressors whom Grod beholds with the abhorrence 
the murderer deserves. The impure desire, — the 
lustful passion, that revels with delight in the 
imaginary scene of violating the connubial bond, 
is itself the demon of adultery, and is branded 
with infamy. 

The principle the exposition of these two com- 
mandments develops, is that upon which the whole 
of the law of God proceeds. E^ery part of the 
moral government of Grod is administered for the 
regulation of the thinking and immortal man. 
The thoughts, the inclinations, the devices, and 
purposes of the heart, are constantly under the 
notice of God ; and the accountability of man for 
his thoughts is involved and recognised in all the 
dispensations of the Divine will. The hypocrite 
may object to this ; the sincere man, — the man who 
is honest to himself, will, with a deep consciousness 
of numerous imperfections, rejoice that the most 



IN RELATION TO HIS THOUGHTS. 53 

ardent desire of his heart is, that " the words of his 
mouth and the meditations of his heart may be ac- 
ceptable in the sight of Grod that all his thoughts 
may be in perfect harmony with the will of Grod. 

SECTION" IX. 

The great Legislator determines ivTiat are vio- 
lations of Ms laiu. "We learn that many sins are 
almost confined to the mind. " The thought of 
foolishness is sin." Deceit, pride, ambition, ma- 
lice, lust, uncharitableness, and some others, are 
sins chiefly committed by the thoughts and feel- 
ings ; from their very odiousness, they are design- 
edly kept from being embodied in word or deed, 
and their existence is found to be an under- 
current, rather than a surface-stream. But the 
eye of the Lord observes tlie deepest current of 
the soul, — the most secret Sowings of thought. 
And when he looked down from heaven to observe 
the moral aspect of his new world, "he saw that 
the imagination of the thought of man's heart 
was only evil continually." A similar estimate 
has been recorded at subsequent periods. The 



54 01^ THE EESPOIS-SIBILITY OF MAIS" 

heart is deceitful above all tilings, and desperately 
wicked : who can know it ? I the Lord search 
the ?ieart, I try tJie reins,^^ (the whole of the 
inner, immaterial, and intelligent man,) " even to 
give every man according to his ways, and accord- 
ing to the fruit of his doings." These searching 
and disclosing operations are sometimes carried on 
by the instrumentality of the word in the hand of 
the Spirit, and that word proves itself " quick and 
powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, 
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and 
spirit, .... and is a discerner of the thoughts and 
the intents of the heart." The reflections of the 
learned Philip Skelton on this subject well deserve 
attention. He says, "What a reproach is it to 
the human understanding and heart, that while 
the Author of all good, — his works of creation and 
providence, and the interests of the soul, draw 
but a few, and those but rarely, to cold and 
almost useless meditations; the author of evil, 
and the means of making us now and for ever 
unhappy, employ all the rest of mankind in such 
meditations as rack their understandings to the 
utmost stretch of thought, and steep every thought 



IN RELATIOK TO HIS THOUGHTS. 



5e5 



in gall. With what thought does one meditate 
on the object of his lust ; another on that of his 
avarice ; and a third on that of his ambition ! 
How keenly is this man set a thinking by envy, 
and that by malice and revenge ! How artful are 
their schemes ! How vehement their pursuits ! 
And why all this waste of thought, but for pur- 
poses as foolish as they are wicked ? — Found by 
universal expeaience, in continual disappointmoDts 
and vexations, to be as foolish as they are pro- 
nounced by the severe remorses of conscience to 
be wicked." 

Conscience is Grod's voice echoed in the soul ; 
and that voice is not less censorious on the 
thoughts, than it is on the deeds which come 
under its cognizance. The reproofs which con- 
science administers, produce wounds on the spirit 
of man, which may be healed, but the scars remain 
till the latest period of existence. 

" These, the part 
Perform of eager monitors, and goad 
The soul more sharply than with points of steel, 
Her enemies to shun, or to resist." 

The unwillingness of man to acknowledge his 
responsibility for his thoughts, induces many erro- 



56 Olf THE EESPONSIBILITT OF MAK 

neous views, and involves him in difficulty, in 
attempting to account for many things in relation 
to his conduct. The page of inspiration, clearly 
setting forth this responsibility, gives a solution 
to those difficulties, and corrects the gross error 
of charging God with tempting man to violate his 
own law. " Let no man say when he is tempted, 
I am tempted of God : for God cannot be tempted 
with evil, neither tempteth he any man : but every 
man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own 
lust, and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, 
it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished 
bringeth forth death." This is a concise, but com- 
plete history of sin. All sin is traceable to the 
thoughts, — the eTnevfJuaij — the desires of the heart. 
When these are predisposed to ignite, the smallest 
spark of temptation produces combustion ; and 
that spark is often generated by the friction of 
the thoughts themselves. In this view the im- 
mortal Herbert agrees, and expresses it in his own 
quaint style : — 

" My thoughts are working like a busie flame ; 
Until their cockatrice they hatch and bring ; 
And when they once have perfected their draughts, 
My words take fire from my enflamed thoughts." 



m EELATION TO HIS THOUGHTS. 57 

So that the thoughts are first in the transgression. 
How different with the pure and holy mind of 
Christ, on whose crystal thoughts the tempter 
could produce no stain, though, during forty days 
and forty nights, he tried all the means that 
Satanic skill and malignity could suggest ! In this 
case, where, though there were no sinfulness in 
the thoughts, yet the most unequalled force of 
temptation and no sin ; while, in other cases, where 
there is the farthest possible remove from temp- 
tation, the thoughts produce sin, we cannot arriye 
at any other conclusion than that of the schoolmen 
who call the thoughts the " motus primo primi," 
— the very first motions of sin. 

SECTION X. 

The revolution which takes place in conversion, 
consists in the whole intelligent and moral man 
leing Irought under a heavenly influence. It is not 
a mere change of creed, or of rites and ceremonies, 
— not merely a reformation of the outward man- 
ners and conduct. It is a work carried on, in the 
inner chambers of the soul, affecting the will, the 



58 OK THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MAK 



affections, and the thoughts. In this change, the 
Spirit of Grod revises his own law on the tablets of 
the heart, — writes it in deep and legible charac- 
ters, in the very dwelling-place of the thoughts, 
and couches the eye and restores the vision of 
thought to read it, and inclines the will to yield 
subjection. All this is intimated by the language 
of inspiration, in whatever aspect it presents this 
mighty change. I will put my laws into their 
mind, and write them in their hearts ; and I will 
be to them a God, and they shall be to me a 
people." Again, the promise of God, in relation to 
this change, contemplates the existing defilement 
and pollution of the thoughts, and exhibits the 
operations of the Spirit, under an appropriate and 
impressive simile. " Then will I sprinkle clean 
water upon you, and ye shall be clean : from all 
your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse 
you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new^ 
spirit will I put within you : and I will take away 
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give 
you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit 
within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, 
and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." 



IN BELATION TO IIIS THOUaHTS. 59 



If words have any meaning, these clearly show 
that the change is to take place in the thoughts, 
feelings, and principles of the sonl. 

Eepentance is an important part of conversion ; 
and this has to do principally with the thoughts. 
The invitations and admonitions to its exercise 
are directed to the , thoughts. Let the wicked 
forsake his ways, and tlie unrighteotts man his 
tJiougJits, and let him turn unto the Lord, and he 
will have mercy on him ; and to our God, for he 
will abundantly pardon." Again, " Thy heart is 
not right in the sight of Grod. Eepent, therefore, 
of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps 
the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee." 
The question at issue is assumed in these quota- 
tions. No man can repent of that for which he 
is not responsible, or concerning which his re- 
sponsibility is at all dubious. But, by the autho- 
rity of the Supreme Judge, man is called upon 
everywhere to repent, and the specimens of re- 
pentance, recorded in sacred Scripture, give us 
ample evidence that the repentance required, is a 
sorrow for wicked thoughts, and a determination 
to maintain against them a constant resistance. 



60 



THE EESPOT^SIBILITY OF MA^T 



It is therefore an obvious conclusion, that the 
responsibility of man for his thoughts is an ad- 
mitted fact by the sacred writers. The prajer 
of the genuine penitent recognises this truth 
when he prays, " Cleanse thou me from secret 
faults." His strugglings with wicked thoughts 
are his keenest troubles, and his severest con- 
flicts. So felt the pious Herbert, in reference to 
the workings of thoughts within. 

*' We are the earth ; and they, 
Like moles within us, heave, and east about : 

And, till they foot and clutch their prey, 

They never cool, much less give out. 
Xo smith can make such locks, but they have keys ; 
Closets are halls to them ; and hearts, highways.'* 

SECTION XI. 

Mani/ facts recorded, in connexion with the 
administration of the moral government of God, 
sliow that God holds man accountable for his 
thoughts. The inflictions of God's displeasure 
can never exceed the limits of human responsi- 
bility. Thoughts have been marked by these 



IJf BELATIOX TO HIS THOUGHTS. Gl 

inflictions, and therefore they are within the pre- 
cincts of human responsibility. 

During the sojourn of Christ on earth, the Jews 
gave many proofs of their erroneous views. Nor 
did they entirely vanish at the light of his instruc- 
tions. Paul, who had previously been a Pharisee, 
said he had not known concupiscence, or, desires to 
sin, unless the commandment had said, " Thou 
shalt not covet." Josephus, who was of the same 
sect, seemed to have no deep sense o{ the sinfulness 
of thoughts and intentions, when he reprehends 
Polybius, the historian, for ascribing the death of 
Antiochus Epiphanes to sacrilege, because he had 
a purpose to plunder the temple, though he did not 
actually do it. Josephus adds, "For purposing to do 
this, but not actually doing it, he was not deserving 
punishment."* The Supreme Governor of the 
universe was the administrator of the event in 
this case. Antiochus did not die a violent death, 
inflicted by human agency, but by an awful dis- 
temper inflicted by the hand of Grod ; and, with his 
dying breath, he confessed that this calamity was 

* Th yap /^T/KeVt iroLrjaai rh epyov ^ovX^v<rd}JL^vov, ovk rjw 
TL/JLcopiai ^|ioy. Lib. xii. cap. ix. 

E 



62 



OlS" THE RESPOKSIBTLITT OP MA^T 



sent upon him, because of the miseries he had 
inflicted on the Jews, and because their God he 
had contemned. 

" Hezekiah rendered not again according to the 
benefit done unto him ; for his heart was lifted up : 
therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon 
Judah and Jerusalem. Notwithstanding, Hezekiah 
humbled himself for the pride of his heart." 

The sin of Nebuchadnezzar was, doubtless, one 
of haughty thoughts and lofty imaginings, offensive 
to that Holy Being before whom the most seemly 
object is the humble spirit, the penitent heart. 
And the extent of the sin must be measured by 
the infliction of displeasure it incurred. It was a 
sin not so much of words as of thoughts, — a soul 
inflated with pride, presenting its bloated form to 
the glance of the Eternal Eye. " He walked in the 
palace of the kingdom of Babylon, and said. Is not 
this great Babylon, that I have built for the house 
of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for 
the honour of my majesty ? And while the word 
was yet in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from 
heaven, saying to king Nebuchadnezzar, To thee is 
it spoken : the kingdom is departed from thee. And 



IN RELATION TO HIS THOUaHTS. 63 

they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling 
shall be with the beasts of the field." The blow 
was inflicted directly on the sinning and haughty 
thoughts ; — into their region the thunderbolt of the 
Divine anger rushes, — the pride of intellect is laid 
low, and reason, reeling from her seat, leaves the 
man a fit companion for the brute creation. Who 
can look on this fact without feeling the truth of 
that axiom of the moral government of God — " A 
proud heart is sin" ? 

Belshazzar's sins were bold and daring deeds ; 
but these only the developments of thoughts, in 
which he had revelled and delighted, long before 
their manifestations were embodied to the view of 
mortals. His punishment was most signally di- 
rected to the thoughts and feelings of the heart. 
Conscience awoke from her slumber, and smote, 
and spared not. The cheek of the monarch, all 
crimsoned with wine, takes the paleness of death. 
The knell of his enjoyments rung in the ear of his 
conscience. 

" The monarch saw and shook, 
And bade no more rejoice ; 
All bloodless waxed his look, 
And tremulous his voice. 



64 OJiT THE EESPONSIBILITT OE MAN 

* Let the men of lore appear, 

The wisest of the eai-th, 
And expound the words of fear, 
Which mar onr royal mirth.' " 

Another fact which illustrates Jehovah's visiting 
the sins of thouglit, and the sinful emotions of the 
heart, with the tokens of his anger, is the case of 
Herod, when, in all the gorgeousness of his king- 
ship, he becomes a mass of corruption, when the 
angel of the Lord was commissioned to smite him : 
And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal 
apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration 
unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, 
It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And 
immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, be- 
cause he gave not God the glory ; and he was eaten 
of worms, and gave up the ghost." Pride, haugh- 
tiness, and arrogancy, are sins, whose external 
manifestations generally fall short of the realities. 
Their oflfensiveness to society operates as a curb, 
and restrains their rampancy. These are among the 
sins on which Grod has denounced and executed his 
severest anathemas : " I will punish the world for 
their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity ; and I 



IN RELATIOT^ TO HIS THOUGHTS. 65 

will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and 
will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." 

And in addition to the above facts, are there 
non'e of those inward correctings of evil thoughts, 
which make a man exclaim, " A wounded spirit 
who can bear ?" Are there no scorpion-whips, put 
into the hand of conscience, under whose stripes 
the soul winces and writhes ? Are there, even now, 
no gnawings of the worm that enfeeble the nerves, 
shrink the muscles, and wan the bloom of the 
cheek ? Are there no comings back of thoughts, 
once loved and cherished, now by the light of 
reflection all ghastly, grim, and horrible, and from, 
which flight or retreat is sought in vain ? Do not 
these, as with a thousand tongues, tell that there is 
a tribunal, at which thoughts are arraigned, judged, 
and sentenced ? Do not these warn against so 
trifling with thoughts, as to incur those pangs which 
baffle all language to express ? A spark of eternal 
torment, — an epitome of hell burning up the spirit. 
" When thou with rebukes does correct man for 
iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away 
like a moth." After thoughts have been called into 
being, they, like spectres, haunt the very mind 



66 01^ THE EESPOKSIBILITT OE MAK 



which produced them ; and that mind discovers its 
utter impotency to unmake these things of its own 
creation. This sentiment is often felt by the mind 
while reflecting with penitence on its inmost 
workings, and it is expressed by the poet of the 
seventeenth century : — 

" One while I think, and then I am in pain 
To think how to unthink that thought again." 

SECTION xn. 

It is not easy to define the limits of this respon- 
sihility. It may, however, with safety, be stated, 
that it commences as soon as an individual pos- 
sesses a consciousness of his own competence to 
fulfil any engagement, involving the principles 
of moral obligation, and that it continues so long 
as that consciousness exists. It has a bearing on 
all those companions, books, associations, habits, 
and other objects, which, separately or combinedly, 
are known as causes to produce pure and dignified 
thoughts, or sinful and debasing thoughts, and to 
expel others of a difierent character. 

It extends to the exercise of the will, in all its 



IN KELATION TO HIS THOUGHTS. 67 



power over tbe machinery of thought. There are 
subjects on which some will tliinJc^ despite the 
wrongness and the wretchedness of such thinking ; 
there are others on which they will not thinh^ though 
great facilities, powerful inducements, and beneficial 
consequences are presented. This is no new thing, 
Moses witnessed it and lamented, saying, " Oh that 
they were wise, that they understood this, that they 
would consider their latter end." And a greater 
than Moses wept over the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
and their chosen misery, — chosen, because " they 
would not consider the things which belonged to 
their peace." God, from his throne in heaven, 
observes and records this unwillingness to think 
appropriately and beneficially : " The ox knoweth 
his owner, and the ass his master's crib : but Israel 
doth not know, my people doth not consider." 

Mind is the one talent which every sane man 
possesses ; and he that will not regulate and employ 
it to the best advantage, acquires the character and 
receives the condemnation of " the slothful servant." 
The responsibility of man for his thouglits, tells on 
the immortality of his being. There may be other 
and more imposing descriptions of hell and heaven, 



68 ON THE RESPOKSTBILITT OF MAN 

but none more comprehensive and true than this : 
He that is filthy, remains filthy still no worse 
hell can be dreaded : " and he that is holy, remains 
holy still no brighter heaven can be desired. 

The relative extent of this responsibility is beyond 
all measure. It increases with the widening sphere 
of influence, and augments with the lapse of time. 
Sound reverberates through immensity. Thought 
acts and re-acts through eternity. Thoughts, uttered 
centuries past, are still telling on the minds of men 
in the present day. Thoughts, the ofispring of the 
undying mind, inherit an endless duration as their 
rightful patrimony. And long — long after the worm 
has feasted on the tongue that uttered, or on the 
hand that recorded the thoughts — shall the thoughts 
possess an immortality, in the exercise of which shall 
they reunite with their parent mind in the enjoy- 
ment of bliss, or in the endurance of woe without 
end. 



Young men, permit one, who knows your temp- 
tations, snares, and dangers, — one who longs for 
your present and eternal happiness, — one who would 



IN EELATION TO HIS THOUGHTS. 69 

not deprive you of any real pleasure, or increase any 
of your imaginary or real sorrows, — one who has 
laboured, and will continue to labour for your eter- 
nal salvation, — permit such a one to implore you, to 
urge you to ponder this momentous subject. Think 
that your eternal destinies are, in a measure, bound 
up with attention to it now ; and the destinies of 
those who are, or may come, within the sphere of 
your influence, are equally involved. Begin now to 
take heed to your thoughts, — accustom yourself to 
look at them in the light of Grod's holy word, — pray 
that God the Spirit, according to the form so often 
used, " would cleanse the thoughts of your heart 
by his own inspiration," and strive to acquire the 
habit of examining and watching your thoughts, 
that you may obtain a correct and impartial know- 
ledge of your own mental territory, and its varied 
inhabitants. Tou may meet with difficulties in the 
attempt ; but be assured that these will diminish, if 
not entirely dissolve, under the influence of a well- 
regulated perseverance. In the exercise of this vigi- 
lance you will obtain a glorious mastery over your 
thoughts. Tou will tame these wild creatures of 
the mind. Tou will use the rein and the curb, not 



70 



Oif THE EESPONSIBILITT OF MAIS'. 



to diminisli their strength and vigour, but to guide 
and control them. Tou will rule your own spirit, 
and wear a brighter honour " than he that taketh a 
city." Tou will possess an undecaying nobleness 
of character, a stability of principle, and a prowess 
to resist and vanquish your bitterest foes. Carry 
your thoughts to the cross of Christ, to be washed 
in his blood,— to be imbued with his spirit, — to be 
invested with his righteousness, and to be trained 
for his service in a better world. " Think, there- 
fore, and you shall be saved. But think with all 
the strength of your understanding, and all the 
ardour of your heart. Think, with that strength of 
understanding you exerted when you schemed for 
the profits, pleasures, or honours of this despicable 
world. Think, with that ardour of heart which 
animated your pursuit of vanity and vexation ; 
and Grod, while you are now thinking for him and 
heaven, wiU ask no more." 



PART II. 



ON THE GOVERNMENT OF THE THOUGHTS. 

GENERAL REMARKS — GOVERNMENT OF THE THOUGHTS DEFINED 
—REASONS FOR THE ADOPTION AND PRACTICE OF THIS GO- 
VERNMENT—THE MEANS TO SECURE THIS GOVERNMENT ; SELF- 
EXA^nNATION— PRE-OCCUPATION OF THE THOUGHTS — REGARD 
TO THE PASSIONS — DECISIVE PERSEVERANCE — CONSTANT 
RECOGNITION OF OMNISCIENCE — FERVENT PRATER FOR THE 
AID OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

SECTION I, 

" The government of the tJiouglits! " the reader 
may exclaim surely the government of the winds, 
the control of the ocean, the arrest of the sun- 
beams, are as rational subjects for consideration, as 
the government of the thoughts, and all alike, mere 
objects of imagination, never to be accomplished. 
Thought is as free as air, and as unchained as 
ocean's wave. Eestraint is impracticable. As soon 
attempt to build a city on the bosom of the deep, as 



72 , ON THE GOYEENMEKT 



establish a government over the thoughts. The 
empire of thought is unique in its kind, and suffers 
no created potentate to enter." It is not to be 
wondered that any person, who has not given pre- 
vious and close attention to the subject, should give 
utterance to sentiments like those he is imagined to 
have expressed. It may be that the subject comes 
before him entirely new : — he has been thinking, it 
may be, for many years, — and delighted and bene- 
fitted some, and injured others, honoured or dis- 
honoured God by his thinkings, and yet the thought 
never occurred to him that there was a government 
in his thoughts, whose rule he acknowledged, and 
whose authority he obeyed. Thoughts are ruled by 
the character of the mind. Mind is an autocrat. 
Tet there is One who says, " By me kings reign, 
and princes decree justice." And there are those 
who are rebellious and disobedient to the authority 
of the Great One, and in them the prince of this 
world rules. The one is a rule of equity and 
happiness, — the other, a rule of tyranny and woe. It 
is not surprising that the rule of tyranny should be 
so extensive in its sway, so numerous in its sub- 
jects, and so fascinating in its pageants ; — two rea- 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



73 



sons may account for this state of affairs : — one is, 
that the principle of this government is in perfect 
harmony with the depraved passions and tastes of 
human nature ; and the second is, that it is the 
peculiarity of this government to blind the eyes of 
the understanding,* to paralyse the conscience, and 
to harden the heart. This gov^ernment is a usurpa- 
tion, and the subjects are at enmity with the right- 
ful Lord. The usurper will employ all the resources 
he has at command, to preserve his power undi- 
minished, to keep his phalanx unbroken. The en- 
lightenment of the understanding, of any of his 
subjects, is dreaded by the usurper as the sure 
omen of revolt. Each subject is a distinct king- 
dom in this vast empire. All consolidated in one. 
Erom its own nature, the mode of its exertion, the 
consequences of its sway, and the final boon it con- 
fers, this rule of tyranny is appropriately called 
the kingdom of darkness," — all darkness, and 
no light about it, except it be the light of eternal 
burnings. 

* "My Lord Understanding's house," says John Bunyan, 
"was too light for the Prince of Darkness, and he therefore 
built a high wall to darken all the windows." 



74 



OK THE GOYEEKMENT 



The rule of equity must necessarily be antago- 
nist to that of tyranny, since its very nature, the 
character of its administration, — the agency it em- 
ploys, — the effects of its reign in time, and its 
ultimate development in eternity, unite to proclaim 
it "the kingdom of light." It is like its Monarch, 
who is all light, and " in him there is no darkness 
at all," — the light of intelligence, the light of purity, 
and the light of joy. To enlighten the understand- 
ing, — to restore the sensitiveness of the heart and 
conscience, — to impart pure and holy principles, — 
and throw around the spirit of man a bright halo 
of enduring gladness, are the objects which only 
this government can effect. Beyond the limits of 
its sway these benefits are unknown. But wherever 
these are, the mind confesses and deplores its for- 
mer infatuation, revolt, and enthralment, — acknow- 
ledges the high and holy influence to which it is 
subjected, and cheerfully avows its fealty and alle- 
giance to Him whose prerogative alone it is to 
rule and govern the immortal soul. Such a change 
effected in the mind, all the affections and thoughts 
are necessarily brought into subjection to the ruling 
and ascendant authority. 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



75 



To induce examination, — reflection, — fervent 
prayer, and decisive resolution, which, under the 
blessing of the Holy Spirit, may terminate in tlie 
submission of the mind to the will of Grod, are the 
chief objects proposed, and constitute the most 
effective means and legitimate pledge for the right 
and happy government of the thoughts. If the 
chief governor of a province possess skill and fide- 
lity, — promptness and decision, in attention to his 
instructions, — the whole community will be well 
governed, and every appearance of rebellion and 
revolt will be banished. And the mind, being 
brought under the control of the Spirit of God, 
becomes the skilful and faithful executive of the 
Divine government in the soul. 

This subject may be viewed in another and some- 
what different aspect — one presented by the re- 
semblance which mind and thought bear to the 
material world. Thought is a creation : and so was 
chaos. But there was a vast difference between 
the cbaotic mass, and the formation of that mass 
into order and beauty. Chaos was rude material. 
The all- ruling Spirit separated, modelled, and 
fashioned that material into those forms of loveli- 



76 



ON THE GOVERNMENT 



ness which Grod approved and angels admired. 
And every part of the finished and perfected crea- 
tion had laws appointed to it, which laws continue 
and maintain the order and harmony of the whole 
inanimate world. And these parts may be again 
subdivided into others, furnishing evidences of the 
material creation, yielding to the skiU. and control 
of man, for his service and enjoyment. The sterile, 
or weedy soil, has been made to bring forth abun- 
dant supplies of useful produce, — the wilderness 
has been turned to a garden : the winds and waves 
have been made subservient to the intercourse and 
commerce of nations, — and the beasts of the field 
have been trained for the service of man, and to be 
obedient to his will. Eeasons which resolve them- 
selves in utility and expedience, have induced the 
trial, and constant establishment of this govern- 
ment over the unintelligent and irresponsible parts 
of creation ; but reasons more powerful may be 
adduced for the trial and confirmation of the go- 
vernment of the thoughts. But these reasons will 
be noticed. 



OF THE THOUaHTS. 



77 



SECTION II. 

By the government of the thoughts is meant, not 
that tyranny which precludes the indulgence and 
expression of thoughts, whenever opposed to pre- 
scribed forms and dogmas, which have been esteemed 
venerable for their antiquity, but have no higher 
authority than that of poor erring man ; nor does 
this government consist in the restraint which for- 
bids the mind to have access to those sources of 
literary amusement and instruction which may 
happen to be under the prohibition of a sectarian 
decree, or a superstitious edict. Nor is it to check 
the luxuriance of the mental soil, nor to diminish 
its productive power ; not to bring over it the arid- 
ness of the desert, or the sameness of the sandy 
plain, — but to cultivate its richness, and restrict the 
variety of its produce to the beauteous, the good, 
and the useful. It is to bring the mind to have, in 
itself, an epitome of the prophetic scene, when 
the fir-tree and the box, the pine and the myrtle, 
shall flourish instead of the thorn and the briar. 
The government contemplated and proposed, is 
that economy which maintains mental vigour and 



78 



OlS" THE aOYEBlTMENT 



originality, and prevents the expenditure of strength 
on wicked or vain musings. 

It is tJie power the mind exerts, in directing 
and beeping the thoughts to any given subject, and 
in excluding others, of an irrelevant and distracting 
tendency. 

It is the Tiahit of testing the moral character of 
the thoughts by the unerring standard of truth, for 
the direct purpose of expelling wicked thoughts 
and encouraging good ones. 

It is the sleepless vigilance^ that maintains order 
and regularity among the thoughts, and holds them 
in readiness for any occasion, when their marshalled 
and united strength may be required. 

It is an alliance formed with the Spirit of God, 
to rule, guide, cleanse, and influence the heart. 

This is the government proposed. And it is pre- 
sumed, that ample and available provisions are made 
for its exercise, and that it must commend itself to 
the judgment and conscience of every thinking 
creature, as being in perfect consonance with indi- 
vidual liberty, — with the responsibility of every 
man in the sight of Grod, — and conducive to the 
happiness of the immortal mind. And if this 



OP THE THOUGHTS. 



79 



government be attained and practised by any per- 
sons in early life^ it is not difficult to see tbat it 
will be the means of securing the most elevated 
enjoyment, — at least a happy tranquillity and free- 
dom from those distressingly corroding thoughts 
to which the poet refers, when he says, 

" Lie still, lie still, ye busy thouglits. 
That wring with grief my aching heart." 

SECTION III. 

The reasons which urge to the practice of this 
government, may be now more particularly con- 
sidered. 

Among these may be noticed, tJie moral aspect 
of the thoughts ly nature, — their rebellious and 
evil tendency. Every description of the human 
thoughts, in the Divine word, is sustained and con- 
firmed by individual experience and observation. 
Here each man's image is drawn, — his inner man 
portrayed. " The thoughts of his heart " (the 
indigenous productions of the unrenewed mind) 
" are only evil continually." They are the active 



80 



OK THE aOYEE^rMEI?"T 



correspondents, and too often the vigorous allies, of 
foes without. Enemies within the fortress are 
more subtle and dangerous than those without, 
because, among other reasons, they are least sus- 
pected, — like the Trojans, who put on the Grecian 
accoutrements and uniform, it is no easy task to 
determine how to treat them, — they have Grecian 
appearance, but Trojan voice. There is, indeed, no 
tempter so wicked and debased, but he may calcu- 
late with certainty on finding some of the thoughts 
to favour his evil purposes, and to acquiesce in his 
proposals. As no man becomes very wicked all at 
once, so temptation may not gain, at all times, a 
unanimous concurrence of the thoughts ; but the 
very parley that ensues on the temptation .being 
presented, is an evidence that there are some, per- 
haps many^ favourable to its completion; and the 
temporary delay is often occasioned by attempts 
to bring over the more excellent dissentients, or 
to carry the tempter's purpose in spite of every 
opposition. This being the character of the 
thoughts of the depraved heart, it furnishes a 
powerful reason why they should be brought under 
an enlightened and wholesome government, that 



OF THE THOUaHTS. 



81 



their roamings, their plottings, and their rebellions 
may be prevented. 

Ajiother, and apparently opposite reason for the 
government of the thoughts, may be derived from 
their original dignity. In Eden's purity and bliss, 
man's eojoyment arose not so much from the 
beauty that met his eye, or from the melody that 
fell on his ear, as from the inward communings of 
his mind with nature and with Grod. His power 
to think, gave him his high pre-eminence over all 
animal creation, and constituted him the appro- 
priate shrine and subject of the Divine law. His 
power to think showed him to be a being " but a 
little lower than the angels," and tlie creature 
with whom God condescends to commune. Had 
some of the thoughts of man, in the days of his 
pristine glory, — previous to the fall, — been handed 
down to the present time, they would furnisb some 
specimens of the moral and intellectual man, as 
he came from his Creator's hands, or as he con* 
versed with his Grod. Such thoughts would pre- 
sent a most fearful contrast to the ordinary 
thoughts of the most enlightened and sanctified 
mind, and furnish us with the pattern, according 



82 



ON THE GOVEENMENT 



to which the Spirit of Grod designs to restore the 
Divine image on the heart of the sanctified. Every 
consideration arising from the immortality and the 
capacities of the soul, should urge to the exercise 
of a most vigorous government of the thoughts, 
since the thoughts are pov^erful in their influence 
on present character, and the eternal destiny of 
the soul. 

On this subject an old writer says, "Let the 
consideration of the noble and dignified nature of 
our Thoughts induce us to an orderly manage- 
ment of them ; for they are beams of that Light 
which is inaccessible, the immediate fruits and 
eldest Sons of that immortal Parent in us, which 
is nearly allied to the Divinity itself. And how 
then can we possibly be so insensible of our own 
high character, who were framed after the Image 
of the Immortal God, and are designed to be 
made more ample partakers of his Nature, as to lay 
out our time and our pains so busily as we do, in 
the management of a Family, acquiring an estate, 
and supporting and adorning a mouldering Car- 
case, and yet totally disregard the menage of our 
thoughts, which are the pride and glory of our 



or THE THOUGHTS. 



83 



Nature ? For wherein else, but in this thinking, 
reasoning Power, do we differ from the inhabitants 
of our stable or our kennel ? And as this in 
general discriminates our Nature from theirs, so — 
I had almost said — does one man as much differ 
from, and excel another, by how much he is the 
better Master of his thoughts, and can lay them 
out to more generous purposes ; if, therefore, we 
have any just sense of the dignity of human Na- 
ture, and would advance and improve that part of 
us, which is properly the Man, we must manage 
those thoughts by which we manage all things 
else." It is unbecoming the dignity of man, to 
be " crowned with glory and honour, — to have 
dominion over all things," and not to le able to rule 
himself. 

The facilities afforded make this government at- 
tainable : "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse 
his way ? By taking heed thereto according to thy 
word." The mirror of sacred truth shows each 
man the character and complexion of his thoughts, 
—teaches him the necessity of having the heart 
renewed, that the fountain being purified, the 
streams may be clear, — furnishes him with valuable 



84 



OIT THE GOYERNMEKT 



maxims for the regulation of his thoughts, — gives 
valuable promises of heavenly aid, — directs to the 
throne of grace, and encourages him in the expec- 
tation of the constant influence of the Holy Spirit. 
JSText to the sacred volume and its rich provisions, 
are those invaluable memoirs which show the work- 
ings of the human heart, and record the triumphs 
of those who, amidst great difficulties, have subdued 
the volatility and perverseness of their thoughts, 
and have for years exercised a complete govern- 
ment of their minds. This last means may teach 
the young recruit how the foe has been foiled and 
defeated, give some hints as to the best manner of 
using the sword of the Spirit, and other parts of 
the Christian armour. 

The last reason for urging to the practice of the 
government of the thoughts, is, God has enjoined it, 
" Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it 
are the issues of life." The way in which this and 
similar injunctions were understood by holy and 
inspired men, may be gathered from their writings. 
David had such pungent sorrow from the seductive 
influence of his thoughts, that he earnestly prayed, 
" Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and renew a 



OP THE THOUGHTS. 



85 



right spirit within me." Humble were his confes- 
sions, and fervent were his prayers in reference to 
his thoughts ; thus showing that he watched and 
guarded them with untiring vigilance. Isaiah so 
frequently speaks to Israel of the thoughts in their 
devotion to God, or in their wanderings from him, 
that it is evident that he regarded the government 
of the thoughts as that which Grod had required. 
Paul, the apostle, has left on record so much of his 
own personal experience, as shows that he lived in 
the daily exercise of this control over the thoughts. 
The greater part of the seventh chapter of the 
Epistle to the Eomans is a description of the con- 
flict carried on by the apostle, on the arena of mind, 
with the thoughts of his own heart. If mind be a 
talent, its improvement is beyond all calculation 
important,— and its improvement is best secured by 
a healthful and vigorous discipline being adopted in 
early life. Such discipline is the fulfilment of the 
command, in its application to the talent of mind, 
" Occupy till I come," and is the very government 
of the thoughts proposed. Irrespective of any pre- 
sent and apparent benefits derivable from the exer- 
cise, the authority of the Divine injunction should 



86 



OK THE GOYEENMEKT 



be of sufficient weight to influence and decide any 
intelligent being in the course he should pursue. 
Although, in reference to the question under con- 
sideration, the benefits of governing the thoughts 
are obviously incalculable to the individual who 
practises it, and to all who come within the sphere 
of his influence, yet the Divine requirement will 
be supremely influential in deciding the sincere and 
enlightened inquirer after truth. The means by 
which this government of the thoughts may be exer- 
cised, will be considered in the following section. 



SECTION IV. 



The first means, to secure the government of the 
thoughts, is, the regular practice of self-examination. 
Self-acquaintance must precede self-government, — 
and self-acquaintance can be obtained only by a 
close and frequent examination of the inner man, — 
the thoughts, the afiections, and the prevailing bias 
of the mind. To this exercise there is too often a 
culpable indifference, if not a sinful opposition, dis- 
played. "We strive as hard to hide our hearts 
from ourselves as from others, and always with more 



or THE THOUGHTS. 



87 



success." The mind that can look into the intri- 
cacies of philosophy, — the depths of science, — the 
characters of men, — and the intrigues of statesmen, 
can also be contented to remain ignorant of its own 
narrow territory. This examination is enforced by 
Divine authority : " Examine yourselves," is not 
merely a special duty, to be performed on special 
occasions, but one that should receive attention, at 
least, daily. " Know thyself," the ancients said, was 
an oracle from heaven; and it is not improbable 
that it was indirectly derived from the records of 
inspired truth. Pythagoras taught his disciples 
to attend to this exercise every night before they 
retired to rest, and most strenuously urged them, 
thrice to examine all the transactions and all the 
omissions of the past day.^ This practice, adopted 

* Nor let soft slumber close your eyes, 
Before you've recollected thrice 
The train of actions tlii'oiigli the day : 
Where have my feet chose out the way ? 
What have I learn'd, where'er I've been, 
From all I've heard, from all I've seen ? 
What know I more that's worth the knowing ? 
What have I done, that's worth the doing ? 
What have I sought, that I should shun ? 



88 



ON THE QOYERI^MEKT 



with an honest and persevering fidelity, will soon 
become an established habit. And nothing so 
calculated to bring the thoughts under a happy- 
control, as to have them scrutinised by the light of 
revealed truth. 

On this subject, an old writer, with his usual 
quaintness and force, says, " It will be our wisdom, 
for the better management of our Thoughts, now 
and then to review them, to call them together to 
the Muster, and examine the state and plight of our 
Minds, to encourage good Motions and discoun- 
tenance Bad, and to let them know we have set a 
spie upon them, and that they come not there with- 
out our Observation. And because every Man has 
his blind Side, and the Sin of his Bosom, and conse- 
quently our Thoughts run further into some sort of 
Objects than others, we must take particular care, 
and, after such review, shall be better enabled to 

" What dtity have I left undoiie, 
Or mto what new follies run ? 
These self -inquiries are the road 
That leads to virtue and to God.'' 

" I should be glad, among a nation of Christians, to find 
young men heartily engaged in the practice of what this 
heathen wi-iter teaches." — Dr. Isaac Waits. 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



89 



guard there most, where our Thoughts ply the most, 
where these haunts are, and the company they most 
delight in, as he who commands in chief, in a Siege, 
will place the strongest guard there, where the 
"Walls, or other Tortifications of the Town, are the 
weakest. So that, if you find that lust, for instance, 
has stolen in at the "Windows of your eyes, and 
got the greatest ascendant over you, watch your 
Thoughts on that Side, for there they'l be sure to 
hanker: So again, if you observe yourself the weakest 
on the side of provocations, and anger be your infir- 
mity, take care to have your Eeason within call, and 
take off your Thoughts betimes from resentments, 
and meditating revenge, for that's the subject they '1 
be sure most of all to dwell on. And thus, by re- 
viewing our Thoughts, we shall both acquire power^ 
and learn how to manage them, and be able to coun- 
termine the Devil, who, knowing our strong, and 
feeble part, better many times than we do ourselves^ 
always lays his train there where 'tis most likely to 
take fire and to blow up our hearts, the strong fort 
of our innocence.'' But it is of the utmost import- 
ance, that some time should be fixed and set apart 
for this examination of the thoughts, and then, most 



90 



01^ THE aOYERNMENT 



punctually observed. Let that time be so sacred, 
that it shall be felt by conscience to be a sin worse 
than sacrilege, to have it employed for any other 
purpose. Each person must determine whether he 
can devote one hour in every day to this exercise. 
A heathen did it ; a man in a Christian country 
ought to do more than a heathen. One day in 
seven should be hallowed by a special application of 
some of its time to communing with the heart. 
Gruard against concealment and deception; look 
closely and judge impartially. The eminent Dr. 
Waugh, with his peculiar pathos, urged this practice 
on the attention of his son, when entering the 
sacred office. He says, " Watch over your thoughts, 
desires, and diversions, when alone. The kingdom 
of Grod is within us. ' As a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he.' Grod weighs our thoughts, and nice 
is the balance in which thoughts are weighed. David 
speaks of remembering Grod on his bed, and his 
soul following hard after him." Eely not on your 
own sagacity, but pray, as the Psalmist did, " Search 
me, 0 Grod, and know my heart ; try me, and 
know my thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked 
way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.'* 



OF THE THOraSTS. 91 

• 

Another means, which may be suggested as con- 
ducive to the end desired, is, That the thoughts 
shouldhe pre-occupied loith those subjects onost cal- 
culated to improve the intellect andhenefit theheart. 
To explain, or rather to account for many of the 
phenomena in natural philosophy, it was, at one 
time, deemed quite sufficient to say, Nature 
abhors a vacuum." This nostrum of the Schools 
was as unsound in its philosophy as it was untrue 
in its application to the difficulties which it was 
supposed to solve. But however inapplicable it was 
to matter, and however untrue as a solution of ap- 
parent mysteries, it is true, — it is applicable as 
exhibiting a principle common to the human mind. 
An indolent mind is Satan's plaything, — to fill it 
with the most sinful and debasing suggestions, and 
then mock at the misery produced. A mind unoc- 
cupied is an impersonation of wretchedness. The 
miseries of ennui are usually found to be insup- 
portable. Some object, or objects of contemplation, 
attention, or aflection will be found almost essential 
to the preservation of sanity. Many minds waste 
much precious time and strength, in trying to think 
what they shall think about, and how employ their 



92 ON THE aOTEElTMENT 

thoughts. The necessity for some object to engage 
the attention of the heart and mind, is beautifully 
and forcibly expressed by one of the most eloquent 
preachers ^ of his day. He says, The heart will 
not consent to be desolated. Though the room 
which is in it may change one inmate for another, 
it cannot be left void, without the pain of intoler- 
able suffering. It could not bear to be left in a 
state of waste and cheerless insipidity. It would 
revolt against its own emptiness. Such is the grasp- 
ing tendency of the human heart, that it must have 
a something to lay hold of, — and which, if wrested 
away, without the substitution of another some- 
thing in its place, would leave a void and a vacancy 
as painful to the mind, as hunger is to the natural 
system. It may be dispossessed of one object, but 
it cannot be desolated of all. A man will no more 
consent to the misery of being without an object, 
because that object is a trifle, or of being without a 
pursuit, because that pursuit terminates in some 
frivolous or fugitive acquirement, than he will volun- 
tarily submit himself to the torture, because that 



* Dr. Chalmers. 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



93 



torture is to be of short duration." The thoughts 
and affections of the mind, like the roots of the ivy,, 
feel after something to which they may cling ; and 
if everything to which they have been accustomed 
to cling, be removed, and no substitute be supplied, 
they wither and die, to the injury of the whole 
plant. As there is this going forth of the thoughts 
and affections, in search of some thing on which, or 
about which, they may employ themselves, — this 
utter abhorrence of vacuity ; and as all this is well 
known to the evil one — the enemy of man — it is 
of the utmost importance that the mind should 
plentifully sow its own territory with the incorrup- 
tible seed of truth, and thus prevent the enemy, 
who would sow his tares. 

Boobs in solitude, and companions in the social 
circle, are often the sub-agents of the evil-sower ; 
some books scatter seed as worthless in kind, and 
as abundant in quantity, as the thistle-down, — it 
falls as gently, roots as quickly, and produces as 
copiously. And it is well, if it produces nothing 
worse. Some thoughts are like the fabled dragon's 
teeth, and the crop as much to be dreaded. Tiie 
flippant infidel companion, buoyant in youth, and 

a 



94 



ON THE eOYEENMENT 



daring in enterprise, — the obscene poet, and the 
godless novelist, — are the seedsmen of such perni- 
cious grain. The beauty of language, and the charm 
of softly-flowing numbers, form the thin skin which 
barely hides the plague-spot it contains. Against 
such things, a vigilance too rigid or too constant 
cannot be exercised. " While the good man slept, 
the enemy sowed tares." And times of drowsy 
indolence are ever favourable to his malign 
purpose. 

Books and companions should be selected, with a 
direct view to the cultivation of the intellect and the 
improvement of the heart. And these two objects 
may be combined without detriment to either, and 
both rendered subservient to the most elevated and 
ennobling enjoyment of the youthful mind. There 
are books which please, without poisoning the mind, 
and instruct, without injuring the heart.* The 
studies of history f and science would much enlarge 

* Among the works to whicli reference is made, may be 
especially noticed those of Milton, Cowper, Akenside, Mont- 
gomery, Kirke White, Barton, PoUok, and many others. 

'I' The cheapness of works of a useful tendency affords a 
facility to young men to cultivate their minds and extend their 
information, unknown to any previous generation. Among 
these may be noticed the works published by the Society for 



or THE THOTJ&HTS. 



95 



the range of knowledge, and invigorate the intel- 
lectual faculties. And for the improvement of the 
moral and spiritual man, the perusal of the bio- 
graphy of the wise and good, and the daily study of 
the sacred Scriptures, will be found highly bene- 
ficial. It was judicious advice once given, " Never 
be without some book of a decidedly religious cha- 
racter, which you can read to fill up the intervals 
of leisure which may occur during the day." Such 
a practice cannot fail to have a most salutary 
result in the production and maintenance of suitable 
thoughts. Men distinguished in the world of lite- 
rature for the eminence and honour they have 
acquired, were accustomed to prepare their minds 
for those splendid efforts they made, by conversing 
with the mighty dead, — by bringing their minds 
to clasp hands with the giant minds of by-gone 
days. 

When Bossuet was about to write one of those 
orations which secured an immortality to his fame, 

"Promoting Useful Kjiowledge," and by that for "Promoting 
Entertaining Knowledge." And the same facility is afforded 
for obtaining Peligious Publications, through the means of the 
"Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," — "The Reli- 
gious Tract Society," and other similar institutions. 



OK THE GOYEENMENT 



he used first to read Homer, as he said, " that he 
might kindle his lamp by the rays of the sun.'* 
And is there not a Sun whose light is clearer, 
whose kindlings are more certain, and more acces- 
sible than Homer ? The thinkings of an angel and 
the conversation of a seraph, would well repay the 
closest attention. But the Grod of angels and 
seraphs has condescended to record his thoughts, 
and present them to man in a form accessible to all. 
God's thoughts are kindling and inspiring. " How 
precious are ^% thoughts unto me, 0 Grod ! How 
great is the sum of them !" Communion with these 
thoughts will exert a powerful influence in expelling 
the dark forebodings, or gloomy suggestions of the 
mind, and in awakening thoughts of a purifying and 
cheering tendency. The whole word of God, if 
pondered and understood, will be the inexhaustible 
source, whence the mind may derive thoughts that 
approximate to heaven in intelligence and sanctity. 
AmoDg those portions, which might be specially 
chosen for the occupation of the mind, are the en- 
raptured themes of Isaiah, — the devout feelings of 
the Psalmist, — the comprehensive maxims of the 
Proverbs, — the simple histories of the Evangelists, — 



OF THE Tnouaars. 



97 



and the sublime visions of the Eevelation. These 
are the fountains of truth, unmixed with any error, 
without any of the turbidness of human corruption. 
And in these days, when such vigorous and untir- 
ing efforts are made to mingle the turbid streams of 
patristic theology with "the river of Grod," too 
much care cannot be taken to guard against these 
troubled waters. The best security against erro- 
neous thoughts and imposition on the subject of 
apostolic authority, is a correct and enlarged ac- 
quaintance with the only sources of apostolic verity, 
—"the Epistles," which contain apostolic doctrine, 
— and " the Acts," which show apostolic practice. 
A mind, richly stored with scriptural truths, and 
making those truths the subject of frequent medi- 
tation, will not be an easy prey to evil thoughts, — 
nor an easy victim to the seductions of error. Grood 
Bishop Home, with much propriety and beauty, 
observes, "The mind should be well furnished 
with proper materials on which to employ itself. 
We shall then be secured against the incursions of 
rambling, conceited, worldly, impure, and revenge- 
ful thoughts, which otherwise will devour half our 
time, and appear against us, to our unspeakable 



98 



ON THE GOTEUyMElS^T 



amazement, in that day when the secrets of all 
hearts shall be revealed." 

To prevent that vacuity the mind abhors, and 
that indolence most favourable to Satan's devices, 
the mind may, in connexion with inspired truth, 
derive much material for thinking, from a habit of 
reading " Nature's ample page." The changing 
seasons, — the expanse of heaven, all glowing with 
light and beauty, — the measureless ocean, — the ex- 
tensive landscape, — vegetation, in all its varieties of 
kind and progress, — will present many interesting 
lessons, and suggest many valuable thoughts to the 
man, whose soul looks out of his eyes, to see and 
consider the wonders of Grod's creating and super- 
intending attributes. David meditated on the works 
of Grod's creative power and goodness, and viewed 
the position which man occupied in the midst of 
those works, and gathered thence exalted thoughts 
of the excellence and glory of Grod. And on another 
occasion, when meditating on the providence of Grod, 
which he did, by enumerating the most remarkable 
facts, in which the history of the church was in- 
volved, he is instructed by the unerring Spirit to 
record, " Whosois wise and will observe these things, 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



99 



even lie sliall understand the loving-kindness of the 
Lord." Some men see, but do not perceive. The 
appeal may be made to the outward sense, but the 
correspondent emotion is not awakened. The tym- 
panum vibrates, the retina refracts, the evidences of 
animal vitality are not wanting, and the spiritual 
part of the man is not dead, but sleepeth, — an 
indescribable torpor pervades all the perceptive 
faculties, and he looks on the broad type of 
nature's book, and says, I cannot read, because I 
am not learned." And when he hears another tell, 
how glowing thoughts and vivid emotions were 
awakened by nature's loveliness or nature's song, — 
ne then manifests some feeling, and that only of 
amazement, that any creature of his own size and 
figure should ever give utterance to those senti- 
ments, which an admiration of nature and devotion 
to God had inspired. In delightful contrast to this, 
is the man whose soul is all soul, — whose per- 
ceptive powers are in constant activity, and who, 
by the habit of conversing with nature, quickly 
recognises her gentlest whispers, and perceives 
her every changing tint. 



100 



Oir THE GOVEENMENT 



* ' Not a breeze 
Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes 
The setting sun's effulgence, not a strain 
Prom all the tenants of the warbling shade 
Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake 
Fresh pleasure, unreproved. Nor thence partakes 
Fresh pleasure only : for the attentive mind, 
By this harmonious action on her powers, 
Becomes herself harmonious : wont so oft 
In outward things to meditate the charm 
Of sacred order, soon she seeks at home 
To find a kindred order, to exert 
Within herseK this elegance of love, 
This f ah' inspii'ed delight ; her tempered powers 
Eefine at length, and every passion wears 

A chaster, milder, more attractive mien. 

* * * * * * 

* * * Thus the men 

"Whom nature's works can charm, with God himself 
Hold converse ; grown familiar, day by day, 
With his conceptions, act upon his plan. 
And form to his, the relish of their souls." 

A full sympathy witli these sentiments would 
secure to the mind ample material for thought, and 
no ordinary means for moral improvement. The 
ultimate object of the Spirit's work on the heart — 
in regeneration and sanctification — is to conform 
the mind, in its principles, feelings, and tastes, to 
the mind of God. And as a means to an important 



OE THE THOUGHTS. 



101 



end, the primary object of the Spirit is to call away 
the thoughts from sinful and vain pursuits, and to 
engage them on those subjects which attract the 
heart to God : the love of God in Christ — the free- 
ness of pardon — full salvation through Christ — the 
enjoyments of religion^ — the anticipation of glory. 
These are subjects sufficiently copious to employ, 
and sufficiently spiritual to improve, an angel's 
mind, and warm an angel's heart. And it may be, 
that much of angelic happiness is derived from the 
contemplation of these subjects, and the connection 
these subjects have with enlarged manifestations of 
the glory of God. " Into these things the angels 
desire to look." It would be a high promotion to 
become fellow-students with them. The apostolic 
advice is comprehensive and forcible : " What- 
soever things are true, whatsoever things are 
honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, what- 
soever things are of good report ; if there be any 
virtue, and if there be any praise, tJiink of these 
things." 

A vigilant and restrictive guard over the passions, 
is a necessary means for the right government of 



102 



ON THE GOYEBITMENT 



the thoughts. Though the thoughts are usually 
anterior to the affections or passions, in the order 
of .time, (if the measurement of time may be ap- 
plied to the movements of mind,) yet subsequently, 
it will be found, that the passions assume the 
supremacy in the soul, and rule the ^thoughts. 
The object of our love, or of our hatred, must first 
have been the subject of our thoughts, whether for 
a shorter or a longer time. Eeeling, under which 
general term any passion may be noticed, and all 
the passions included, too often becomes the ram- 
pant empress of the mind. The rule of passion is, 
at all times, one of turbulence and infatuation. 
Thoughts follow, where passion leads. The time 
of youth and early manliood is the time when 
reason and passion " break a lance or two," to 
determine the right of ascendancy ; and too often 
passion is allowed to bear away the palm, and leave 
reason, not dead, but asleep, in an unbroken skin 
on the field. How many a youth, whose prospects 
were bright, whose talents good, and whose promises 
of success and honour, in the field of science and 
literature, were once fair, has allowed some ruling 
passion to divert his attention, to distract his 



OF THE THOUaHTS. 



103 



thoughtg, and to suspend his studies, so that when 
the time has arrived, when mental yigour, attain- 
ments, and qualifications for his profession are to be 
put to the test, a well-earned ignominy has darkened 
that brow, on which honour's wreath might have 
shone, had not passion's Syren voice been heard and 
obeyed. The future prospects of the man are all 
dependent on his entering the profession to which 
he has been devoted. By some means, better con- 
cealed than tnown, he creeps into the profession ; 
but he is so imperfectly informed, that his incom- 
petence soon becomes generally known, and he 
spends an ignoble existence — an object whom the 
wise pity, and the ignorant reproach. 

It is, therefore, a part of practical wisdom, in 
mental government, to accustom the understanding 
and the judgment to inspect and determine the in- 
trinsic merit or demerit of any candidate for the suf- 
frages of the heart. First decisions maybe erroneous, 
and the results final. Love has sometimes been won 
over to an object, whose intrinsic worth could fur- 
nish no claim to the intelligent and enlightened 
regard of the human heart. The extraneous cir- 
cumstances, — the mere tinsel about the character, 



104 



ON THE aOYEENMENT 



fascinated, allured, and infatuated; while, on the 
other hand, hatred (modified sometimes by the name 
of prejudice) has been as suddenly produced and as 
pertinaciously retained, and that towards an object, 
whose excellences justly merit high admiration and 
ardent love. In each case, a passion is ascendant, 
leading the thoughts captive, — often rallying them 
to one point, and making her sceptre to rule in 
every region of the mind. To enlist, please, and 
employ every faculty of the mind, is the perpetual 
exercise of this empress of the soul, and all for the 
augmentation of her own power. She provides 
mementoes for the memory, — pictures for the ima- 
gination, — anodynes for the conscience, — reins for 
the will, — and stimulants for the thoughts. Under 
such an influence, the Qnan is lost in the slave of 
this inmost tyranny. Were this dominancy of the 
passions over the mind, confined to terrene objecta 
only, it would deserve the attention, and call for 
decisive measures, on the part of every human being, 
to maintain the righteous prerogative of reason, — 
enlightened reason^ to keep the passions within the 
precincts of his own government. But where this 
dominancy of the passions interferes with the high 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



105 



and holy claims of Grod, on the best and warmest 
love of the human heart, no vigilance can be too 
constant, — no resistance can be too determined, — 
no efforts can be too vigorous, to keep these seraphs 
of the soul, as " ministering spirits," waiting at the 
altar of God, delighting in obedience to his will, 
and, as "flames of fire," obeying reason's high 
behest, at one time to consume the sacrifice of de- 
votion, to burn the incense of praise to Grod, and, 
at another time, to warm with benevolence, or glow 
with affection, in the circle of human friendship. 

The absence of any given affection does not 
always imply the existence of the opposite. In 
reference to any ordinary object, the absence of 
love does not imply the existence of hatred. But 
where the supreme affection of the heart is justly 
claimed for an object of unequalled and surpassing 
excellence, and for one whose claims are supported 
by an endless series of favours, bearing on the 
happiness, in time and in eternity, — favours, which 
nothing short of the love of God could devise, and 
tlie power of Ood could bestow, — favours conferred 
on creatures, who deserve nothing but anathemas 
and deaths ; — for a heart to be without love to the 



106 



Olf THE GOTEENMENT 



Supreme Benefactor, whose heart had poured forth 
its richest demonstrations of love to the creature 
man, and the sinner condemned ; — for the human 
heart to be without love to such a leing^ and in such 
circumstances, indicates not only the absence of love, 
but the existence of a hatred, for which no other 
reason can be assigned, than that which the Spirit 
of God has given, — that " the carnal mind is enmity 
against God." That enmity is not a simple passion, 
but a combination of all, in a malignant and hostile 
attitude against God and his government. While 
this influence is predominant, it is no wonder that 
the thoughts are reluctant to rally for the service of 
God ; or that, being rallied, they should be restless 
to converge on some other object more congenial 
with the ruling passion of the heart. With thi^ 
sentiment the confession of the wise man agrees, 
when he said, " J was almost in all evil in the midst 
of the congregation and assembly." Even where 
this enmity has received its death-blow, and is al- 
ready virtually slain^ yet there are some strugglings, 
— some convulsive throbs, which are much more de- 
cisive symptoms of approaching and speedy death, 
than symptoms of returning life ; but even these 



OE THE THOUGHTS. 107 

do not uselessly appeal to the sympathy of the 
thoughts. The heart that is now the possessor of 
love to God, as the ruling passion of the soul, has 
often to lament, that, simultaneously with the abdi- 
cation of enmity, there was not an entire extinction 
of all the influence it exerted on the thoughts, and 
of all the habits it formed on the mind. Thoughts, 
long accustomed to respond to the call to rebellion 
and hostility, will show themselves ill at ease, when 
called to acts of devotion and love. The young 
Christian has frequent cause to lament the roaming 
thought and the vagrant imagination, because the 
effects of his natural enmity are not quite eradicated, 
and the thoughts are pupils of a new master, with 
whose mode of instruction and discipline they are 
not yet familiar, "When love to God becomes the 
ruling and established passion of the soul, the 
thoughts will, from the whole circumference of their 
roaming, come in every direction to this passion, as 
the great magnetic centre of attraction. " Where 
the treasure is, there the heart will be also.*' Some 
of the dispensations of Providence seem to be regu- 
lated entirely on this maxim. Grod will have our 
thoughts and hearts in heaven, — and he takes the 



I, 



108 02f THE GOYEENMEKT 

most precious of our earthly treasures to himself : 
our thoughts, — our hearts follow. It is, then, com- 
paratively easy work to " set the affections on things 
above, and not on things of the earth." Strong and 
absorbing attachments, and strong and absorbing 
aversions are sure to interfere with the governance 
of the thoughts. Other passions there are, which 
exert an influence as powerful as love or hatred, and 
which require that a constant and rigorous discipline 
should be exercised, lest they lead the thoughts cap- 
tive. And since enmity against God is the inherent 
passion of our fallen nature, the mind cannot be too 
powerfully impressed with its unreasonableness and 
injurious consequences, as well as its sinfulness, and 
with the necessity of rousing every energy, and of 
using every appointed means for its entire eradica- 
tion. That man is born with such a nature, is ad- 
mitted, is his misfortune ; but that he should retain 
and cherish it, in the face of so many inducements 
and facilities for its destruction, is his fault. 

Properly to exercise this guard over the passions, 
it is necessary to prevent the sparks which kindle, 
and the fuel that feeds these flames. Though the 
soul is immaterial and spiritual in its nature, yet it 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



109 



is so closely wedded to the tody, that they power- 
fully act on each other. And it is well known that 
there are bodily appetites and habits, which may be 
indulged to the prejudice of the health of the soul. 
Intemperance excites and inflames the passions. 
Indulgence and indolence produce obesity of body, 
feebleness of intellect, and excitement of the pas- 
sions. Exercises, regular and manly, associated with 
abstemiousness, are to be observed by those who 
would not be the slaves of passion's fickle reign.* 
Sacred Scripture exhorts to " mortify the deeds of 
the flesh." The apostle Paul exemplifies the mean- 
ing and force of the exhortation, when he says, 
" And every man that striveth for the mastery is 
temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain 
a corruptible crown ; but we an incorruptible. I 
therefore so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I, not 
as one that beateth the air : but I keep under my 
body, and bring it iuto subjection : f lest that by 

* " It would be useless to repeat here all that has been said 
in favour of gymnastics, the principal design being the develop- 
ment of all the coi^oral faculties with which nature has endowed 
us ; no one can deny its immediate influence on the physical, as 
well as moral state of man." — Treatise on Gymnastic Exercises. 

f "Certamen est, quo ssepius adierimus, foi-tiores erimus." 
— Seneca, 

H 



110 



OIT THE GOYEENMENT 



any means, when I have preached to others, I my- 
self should be a cast-away." 

An old writer, with great propriety, observes, that 
" the flames of lust quench the spirit, as the scorch- 
ing beams of the sun put out the gentler heat of the 
fire. Toul weather in the lower region, sends up 
nought but filthy streams and vapours." Turbu- 
lent passion will ever prevent the order and purity 
of the thoughts. 

If exercise and abstemiousness be necessary for 
young men, in order to keep their passions in sub- 
jection, and that as a means of governing their 
thoughts, it is not less necessary that they should 
take heed to their company. Eetirement, occasion- 
ally, is useful ; but entire solitude, never. Social 
intercourse is a boon of Providence claiming our 
gratitude. That man has but half a soul, or he 
must have miserably perverted its noble faculties, 
who has no liking for the society of his fellow-men, 
Yet it must not be concealed, that a love of com- 
pany has induced the unthinking youth to give his 
precious time indiscriminately to every loiterer, who 
has invited his society. Nor has time been the only 
loss the untl^inking and unsuspecting youth has sus- 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



Ill 



tained, — he has lost that comparative innocency, 
which, like the bloom, gave beauty to the untouched 
fruit, — he has lost the calm, the envied calm, acti- 
vity without turmoil, — the spring-morn of the soul. 
These are losses not to be repaired. Costly gems 
and sums of wealth would some men give, if they 
could but obliterate, from the page of their history 
and the tablet of their memory, the conversation 
which first awakened the impure association, or 
kindled the flame of inordinate passion. The least 
departure from chastity of sentiment, in conversa- 
tion, may produce a train of thought most ruinous 
to peace of mind and purity of principle. The young 
man, who would guard against the prostration of 
his intellect, his moral and his immortal being, be- 
fore the shrine of passion — unhallowed and defiled 
passion — must shun the companion who throws out 
the unchaste hint, — the obscene allusion, — the im- 
pure or profane inuendo, as he would shun the 
deadliest monster of the jungle. 

The mental exercises required ia preventing, or 
opposing these causes of provoking the passions, 
must have a salutary influence in governing the 
thoughts ; and the very bridling of the fiery steeds 



112 



01^ THE GOTER]S'ME?rT 



of the passions, must give energy to the whole mind 
in carrying out all the noble purposes of self-govern- 
ment. Any temptation loses more than half its 
strength, when the intended victim is on his guard. 
" In vain is the snare laid in the sight of any bird." 

These exercises cannot fail to augment self-know- 
ledge, make the heart acquainted with its easily- 
besetting sin, show it its weakest gate, and induce 
it to place the most vigilant and courageous sen- 
tinel where the greatest danger is to be appre- 
hended. 

The next means recommended is, 

Decisive perseverance, in establishing and main- 
taining this government of the thoughts. 

It must be admitted, that the man must be master 
over his thoughts, or his thoughts will gain the 
mastery over him. True courage is proved by anta- 
gonism. Where there is no opposition, courage is 
not required ; energies are enervated by inaction. 
The struggle and the conflict invigorate every 
power. The palaestra, and not the couch, is the 
nurse of mental greatness. Easy conquests acquire 
small glory. There are sham fights on the arena of 
the mind, — petty skirmishes, in which both parties 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



118 



are agreed, before the battle, which is to conquer. 
Bad thoughts are no airy combatants, nor can a 
victory over them be obtained on any terms. Ee- 
sistance, delayed or relaxed, weakens energy on the 
one side, and imparts vigour to the other. Decision 
and perseverance are antagonists, before whom the 
stoutest enemies must crouch, and ultimately fall. 
But, if decision quail, and perseverance withdraw, 
they put the chaplet of victory within the oppo- 
nent's reach. The question to be determined here, 
is not, What is the measure of mental strength an 
individual has at command ? but, Does he use it 
decidedly for the accomplishment of the desired 
object ? An infant's strength, decidedly and per- 
severingly employed, may accomplish more than a 
giant's arm, fitfully and hesitatingly exerted. Con- 
tinuous application accumulates force, and achieves 
wonders. " A continual dropping wears away the 
stones." The element, proverbial for its weak- 
ness, — in its smallest divisible quantity, constantly 
applied, — perforates one of the hardest substances. 
This, the achievement of a small, but concentrated 
power. And the man of very moderate mental 
strength may, by decided and continual application, 



114 



055" THE aOYEET^-MENT 



accomplish much more than the man of genius, with 
his infrequent and fitful efi*orts. The very nature 
of the antagonist requires the exercise of this deci- 
sive perseverance. The subtlety, the rapidity, and 
the lubricous nature of thought, enhance the dif- 
ficulty of exercising over it a decisive control. That 
very accumulation of difficulty, is an additional rea- 
son for an uncompromising decision. Eemit atten- 
tion, and the difficulty becomes more formidable. 
Persevere, and the conflict is less difficult, — the 
conquest more certain, — and the prize nearer at- 
tainment. And the prize of victory over the thoughts 
is far more valuable, and more lasting in its results, 
than that in the Olympic games. 

The sentiments on intellectual training, advanced 
by the celebrated Dr. Thomas Brown, of Edinburgh, 
are equally applicable to the moral improvement of 
the thoughts under consideration. He says, "What 
should we have thought of the competitor of the 
Olympic course, whose object was the glory of the 
prize, if, with that illustrious reward before him — 
with strength and agility that might insure him the 
possession of it — and with all the assembled multi- 
tudes of Greece to witness his triumph — he had 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



115 



turned away from the contest, and from victory, 
because he was not to tread on softness, and to be 
refreshed with fragrance, as he moved along ? In 
that knowledge which awaits your studies, in the 
various sciences to which your attention may be 
turned, you have a much nobler prize before you ; 
and, therefore, I shall not hesitate to call forth, 
occasionally, all the vigour of your attention, at the 
risk of a little temporary fatigue, as often as it shall 
appear to me, that, by exciting you to more than 
ordinary intellectual activity, I can facilitate your 
acquisition of a reward, which the listless exertions 
of the indolent never can obtain, and which is as 
truly the prize of strenuous effort as the palms of 
the circus or the course." This language is not too 
strong, if the object to be obtained, by a decisive 
perseverance in bringing the thoughts under a whole- 
some government, be that of giving to the intellec- 
tual, moral, and spiritual man, a superiority over all 
delusive influences, — an excellence that shall sur- 
vive the wreck of the universe, — it is indeed a prize 
that will amply repay the utmost ardour, the most 
fixed attention, and the most prolonged exertion. 
To overcome that volatility and slipperiness of the 



116 



ON THE aOYERNMEKT 



thouglits, SO inimical to decision, it will be found 
beneficial to acquire the habit commit the tliouglits 
to paper ; and after mating frequent attempts, thus 
to hold and detain them, and look them m the face, 
— attention will acquire strength, — resolution will 
be confirmed, — and decision, animated by victory, 
will go on to future and greater triumphs. While, 
on the other hand, a desultory habit has cherished 
and strengthened indecision : and indecision has 
blighted many a fair hope, and withered many a 
beauteous bud of promise. 

Epictetus taught his disciples the necessity of 
decision, when he said, " AVhen you remit your 
attention, do not fancy you can recover it when 
you please ; but remember, that, by the fault of 
to-day, you will be in a worse state to-morrow, and 
a habit of not attending is adduced. "Why should 
you not preserve a constant attention ? there is no 
concern of life in which attention is not required." 

" Aspirat primo fortuna labori." 

The same sentiments are more forcibly expressed 
by a modern writer of distinguished eminence. 
He says, speaking of the necessity of controlling 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



117 



the thouglits, " This is not the attitude of nature, 
but it may be tried ^and practised, and, at 
length, effectually learned. But you will never 
reach it, unless you begin ; you will never succeed 
in it, unless you persevere. And, therefore, my 
plain advice to you is, that you now set to it in 
good earnest. Lay a mandate on your thinking 
faculty, and send it heavenward to God. There is 
many a useless moment that may thus be turned 
to account — many an idle waste in our existence 
that may thus be reclaimed to sacredness. This is 
true spiritual education — the practice of godliness, 
instead of the theory — the way of going about it — 
and by which the soul may, at length, be disci- 
plined to the habit of setting God always before 
it." * Young men, have courage to make the 
attempt to restrain and suppress evil thoughts 
now^ — maintain an unyield id g fortitude, — a decided 
perseverance in the conflict; and do this by en- 
gaging the strength of the Omnipotent Spirit on 
your side, and by putting yourselves under his 
unerring guidance. 



* Dr. Clialmers. 



118 



OH" THE GOYBRKMENT 



The next means which may be submitted, and 
which will harmonise with those already recom- 
mended for the right government of the thoughts, 
is, a constant recognition of the omniscience of God. 
It is much to be regretted that there are errors of 
principle, and errors of degree entertained on this 
important subject. No error is isolated. Every 
erroneous view has its innumerable associates of 
thoughts, feelings, and principles, all bearing the 
mark, that they are not related to truth. The 
great and general truth of God's Omniscience is 
admitted ; but it is such an admission, as has all 
the effect upon the mind that might be expected 
from the most determined denial. It presents the 
anomalous combination of a theoretical belief, and 
a practical infidelity. The awful reality of an ever- 
present and all-observiug Deity, is not felt and 
recognised. Men can act and re-act scenes in the 
rdgion of thought, and under the all-searching eye 
of Grod, which the boldest transgressor would 
blush to enact before any of his fellow-creatures, 
A man of violent passions has restrained his 
temper and ruled his tongue, when in the presence 
of the friend whose good opinion he valued, while 



or THE THOUGHTS. 



119 



the same man has indulged in a long series of 
maligoant thoughts and malicious intentions, in 
the sight of Grod. The influence of a creature's 
presence has been owned and honoured, while the 
inspection of Grod has been disregarded and 
despised. The belief of God's Omniscience, as a 
part of orthodox theology, has been received, 
while, as a practical truth, it has been rejected. 
Men have felt and acted as though the eye of 
Grod looked on all thiugs and on all events, but not 
on the human mind, — as if the heart of man was 
an exception, — as if its recesses were too deep for 
his glance, too intricate for his wisdom to search ; 
— as though certain portions of sacred writ, de- 
claring the Omniscience of Grod, had never been 
read ; or, if read, they were destitute of that evi- 
dence of Inspiration which is to be found in every 
other portion of the Bible. When men are in 
affliction, they believe and confide in the Omni- 
science of Grod, and peek his interposition ; but 
when sinful thoughts and designs are agreeable, 
then they say, " How doth God know ? and is 
there knowledge in the Most High?" ^ Jehovah 

* Ps. Ixxiii. 11. 



120 



OK THE GOYEKNMENT 



answers them and says, " He that planted the ear, 
shall he not hear ? He that formed the eye, shall 
he not see ? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall 
not he correct ? "I the Lord search the heart, 
and try the reins, even to give every man accord- 
ing to his ways, and according to his doings." f 
" The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth 
all the imaginations of the thoughts." J Hell 
and destruction are before the Lord : how much 
more, then, the hearts of the children of men ? " § 
Complete knowledge of our own hearts, or of the 
hearts of others, is unattainable by our most elabo- 
rate researches. " But all things are naked and 
opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have 
to do." II 

Young men, these are the sayings of that book, 
by which you are to be judged, and by whose prin- 
ciples your final destiny will be awarded. Would 
you dwell where the special presence of God, and 
access to his fulness of glory, constitute the 
sources of unending joy, — bring your minds and 
hearts now^ under the discipline of constantly 

* Ps. xciv. 9, 10. t Jer. xvii. 10. % 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, 
§ Prov. XV. 11. II Heb. iv. 13. 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



121 



recognising the fact, that God's eye is as keenly- 
fixed on your heart, as if it were the only object in 
the universe on which his searching glance was 
engaged. All the great events in Providence — all 
the mighty changes in the world — are brought to 
pass in harmony with this important fact, that 
the hearts of men are in the hands of the Lord." 
And hence it is, in the government of the world of 
mind, as well as in the government of the material 
world, 

*' He ceaseless y/orks alone : and yet alone 
Seems not to work." 

The writer admits, that you have many discou- 
ragements, from the hypocritical character, — the 
baneful influence of many frbm whom you justly 
expected a better example. Tou see men walk in 
masquerade with men, and under the most sancti- 
monious pretensions, and artificial courtesy of 
manners, often conceal the basest principles and 
most malignant designs. But with Grod there is 
no shuffling. He looks through appearances, and 
sees realities. 

" On human hearts he bends a jealous eye 



122 



ON THE GOYEENMEiS'T 



and Ms hand records your thoughts, words, and* 
deeds, to manifest them to assembled worlds, in the 
day of the " revelation of the righteous judgment 
of Grod." Dare to he honest to yourself in the 
sight of Grod. Eemember there is no garb His 
eye cannot penetrate, — there is no hypocrisy He 
cannot detect, — and there is no particle of sin- 
cerity, however small, but He will notice, approve, 
and cherish. If in only one heart "there is found 
some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in 
the house of Jeroboam," it does not escape His 
'notice, and the token of His approbation. Be it 
your concern to lay your open heart before the 
mirror of Divine truth, and look at it there. Try 
it, and examine it by these unerring oracles. 
Maintain the habitual impression, *'THOTr Gron 
SEEST ME — my most secret thoughts and feel- 
ings. And while this habit may prevent the 
vagrant, sinful thought from being indulged, it 
will impart great encouragement amidst conscious 
weakness, and the feeblest germs of piety in your 
own hearts. To believe the truth, and realise the 
fact of God's Omniscience, will contribute to your 
comfort when you desire, but cannot pray for spi- 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



128 



ritual blessings, — when you oppose^ but cannot con- 
quer sin : then will it be a solace to you to know, 
that " He that search eth the hearts knoweth what 
is the mind of the Spirit," — the sigh, — the inward 
struggle, — the unutterable groanings his own Spirit 
has produced, " the Hearer of prayer'* correctly 
interprets, perfectly understands, and promptly 
relieves. And amidst temptation's severest con- 
flicts, your thoughts, trained to recognise Omni- 
science, may delight themselves in the assurance, 
that God sees them, — marshals them for the fight, 
— imbues them with prowess, — endows them with 
strength, — and crowns them with victory. Noth- 
ing has a greater tendency to destroy hypocrisy, 
and encourage sincerity, than the habitual recog- 
nition of Omniscience. 

Thou art, O God ! the life and light 
Of all this Wondrous world I see ; 
Its glow by day, its smile by night, 
Are but reflections caught from thee ; 
Where'er we turn, thy glories shine, 
And all things fair and bright are thine. 



Strive to feel this truth, as a fact constantly pre- 
sented to your observation. And in the presence. 



124 



OK THE GOYEENMENT 



and under the immediate notice of Grod, you will 
take heed that your thoughts behave themselves, in 
some measure, worthy of the heavenly Spectator. 

And there is a means, for the government of the 
thoughts, which may powerfully assist all others, 
and without which, none can prove effective ; and 
that is, fervent prayer for the influence of the Soly 
Spirit. If the streams are to be purified, the foun- 
tain must be cleansed ; and if the fountain is to be 
cleansed, the agent that can reach it, and posesses 
power commensurate to the undertaking, must be 
implored and employed. The thoughts are the 
streams, the fountain is the heart, and the Spirit of 
God is the great purifier ; Se alone is competent 
to the undertaking. It is his prerogative to heal 
the troubled waters of the heart. His to reach the 
driest sub-springs of the soul. He alone can 
change the whole moral nature. He can turn the 
bitter, foul, turbid fountain, into sweetness, purity, 
and crystal brightness. He can put that pure and 
potent principle in the heart, which shall give a new 
character and a new disposition to the thoughts, 
while it exhibits its own heavenly origin, as a well 
of water spriuging up into everlasting life." This 



OF THE THOrGHTS. 



125 



is the very agent that man needs in every moral 
enterprise. 

"What is ^0 reasonable, as that the Spirit of order 
and rightness should undertake to regulate and rule 
the confused, distracted, and distracting thoughts of 
the heart ? And what so condescending, as that he 
should voluntarily engage to use his influence for 
our aid ? yea, even to proffer the most appropriate 
assistance ? The condition on which this mighty 
agent engages to bestow his help is, that such help 
should be sought, " He shall lead you into all 
truth." This is the comprehensive promise. An 
appeal is made to the instinctive affections of our 
nature, to encourage us to seek this great and holy 
helper. " If any of you have a son, and he ask of 
you bread, will you give him a stone ? If he ask of 
you a fish, will you for a fish give him a serpent ? 
Or, if be ask of you an egg, will you for an egg offer 
him a scorpion ? If ye then, being evil, know how 
to give good gifts unto your children : how much 
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
Spirit to them that ask him ?" Prayer in such cir- 
cumstances, with promises so full, and with the bles- 
sings needed so amply spread out to view, is but tbe 



126 



ON" THE GOYERNMENT 



acknowledgment of necessity, — the stretching out 
the hand to the Donor of all good for the promised 
boon. A soul thus in prayer, is weakness forming 
an alliance with Omnipotence to wage or maintain 
war against moral evil. It is in prayer the rebel 
hosts of the heart admit a holy and heavenly ruler. 
It is the yielding of the inner kingdom to the govern- 
ment of wisdom, purity, and love. It is the soul's 
acquiescence with Grod's request, " My son, give me 
thine hearb." It is the prodigal clinging to his 
father's neck. 

The very habit of prayer has a salutary influence 
on the thoughts ; T)ut especially when that habit is 
directed to seeking the constant influences of the 
Holy Spirit. It has a tendency to keep alive that 
holy vigilance and care against those thoughts which 
aught grieve that Holy One, or in the least degree 
quench the spiritual ardour which it is his office to 
kindle. A soul wishing to be a temple filled with 
the Holy Grhost, will guard every avenue against the 
introduction of anything that " is unholy, or that 
defileth, or that maketh a lie." It will induce the 
fervent cry, " Cleanse thou the thoughts of my heart 
by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit." The expur- 



OF THE THOUGHTS. 



127 



gation of the idol guests of the heart must be 
anterior to the high eDjoyment which the possession 
of the rich graces of the Holy Spirit can impart. 
"When the purifying process is commenced, He 
works within, " both to will and do of his own good 
pleasure." The soldier is not censurable because 
he has a foe to encounter ; but because he allows 
that foe to gain the advantage through neglecft of 
means, wliich are amply provided and adapted to 
secure the victory. Enemies to the spiritual inte- 
rests of men are very numerous, and no man is 
allowed to remain for a long time without having 
some painful proofs of their malignity and power ; 
but the means of resistance and conquest are ample 
and available, — the sword of the Spirit, and the 
strength and wisdom of the Spirit. A heart 
anxiously seekiugthe influence o^ the Spirit, cannot 
be far from being right with &oa.' Thoughts will 
soon be restrained from their roaming and vagrancy, 
and be brought to delight themselves in the Lord, 
where this anxiety is maintained. 

Young men, let the writer entreat you to implore 
the aid of the Holy Spirit to enlighten, cleanse, and 
sanctify your hearts : this will be the beginning of 



128 OK THE GOYERIS'MEIS'T OE THE THOrGHTS. 

peace acd joy to your minds. Cultivate the habit 
of prayer for the Divine influence ; you will thus 
converse with heaven, walk with God while on 
earth, and prepare for the intercourse of heaven, 
"since but to wish more wtue is to gain'' If 
ancient and heathen men admitted that nothing 
could be good or great without the Divine afflatus, 
and bought it on every occasion requiring still or 
courage, — surely, your age, your temptations, your 
better enlightenment, your necessities, your moral 
relations, and your privileges should urge you now, 
without delay, to seek with importunity the promised 
influences of the Spirit, that you may live not to 
yourselves, but to the glory of Grod. 



* 



PAET III. 

THE INPLUElSrCE OF THOUGHT IN THE FOEMATIOIs^ 
OF CHARACTER. 

THE SCEIPTURAL VIEW OF THE QUESTION— MOTION AND INFLU- 
ENCE TRACEABLE TO MIND — ANY GIVEN KIND OF THINKING 
INDULGED PRODUCES CORRESPONDING PRINCIPLES — DEVE- 
LOPES AND STRENGTHENS HABITS— PRINCIPLES AND HABITS 
CONSTITUTE CHARACTER, PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL 
— INFLUENCE OF THOUGHTS ON DREAMING — THE RELATIVE 
VIEW OF THE QUESTION — THE INFLUENCE OF THOUGHT ON 
THE MIND AND CHARACTER OF OTHERS — THOUGHTS OUTLIVE 
THE EARTHLY HISTORY OF THE MAN — ILLUSTRATION OF THE 
PRINCIPLE — PRODUCE AN EFFECT ON THE ETERNAL DESTINIES 
OF MEN— CONCLUDING APPEAL. 

SECTION I. 

" As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." This 
is the verdict of unerring truth, — this the solution 
of an important question, — this the index of human 
character, in all its variety. This is an eternal 
verity of the moral government of Grod. God looks 



130 THE IIS^rLTJEFCE OF THOUaHT 



on the thinkings of the heart, and his estimate of 
character is formed — his sentence is determined. 
Character is, what it is ia the sight of God. Cha- 
racter is not what it often appears in the sight of 
men. Character is made up of the intellectual and 
moral habits of the man ; and these habits are neces- 
sarily under the influence of the thoughts. Thought 
is the sculptor of character. Any given mumber of 
men present a verisimilitude in the great principles 
of character, and it will be found that their thoughts 
on those principles generally harmonise. Another 
number of men shall be selected, entirely diflferent 
in character from the former, and it will be invariably 
found, that upon all the several points in which the 
character differs, on those very points their thoughts 
disagree. And so will it be found in reference to 
those slighter shades of difference of character, — 
the dissimilarity will be found in exact ratio to the 
difference of thoughts. " As a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he." All aversion or attachment pro- 
ceeds on the assumption that the character is not a 
mere accident, not a mere external appendage, 
but a necessary result, an inseparable effect of an 
equivalent cause, an external development of long- 



IIT THE rOEMATION OF CHAEACTER. 131 

continued and long-cherished thoughts of the heart. 
These are no airy beings, that come and " flit away, 
and leave no trace behind." Thoughts are either 
like Harpies, which steal part and filthify the rest 
of the soul, or like Caesar's coiners, leave their 
master's image and superscription upon the mind. 
The influence of the thoughts is indelible. An in- 
fluence possessing the power of reproducing its 
own impressions in an incalculable series, — a power 
which leaves the discoveries of the photographic art 
at an immeasurable distance. It is the fact, and 
not the modus agendi^ which is now under considera- 
tion. The fact is known, the mode of acting is 
unknown. The fact is realised in every hour's 
experience of the reflecting and observing mind ; 
but to account for this fact, and to give an analysis 
of its processes, would be impracticable. Some 
guesses, — some conjectures may be indulged and 
avowed, but anything approaching to an undoubted 
accuracy, or an undeviating certainty, as relating to 
the process of influence, cannot be presumed. Yet 
the fact of the thoughts influencing the character, 
is so often and so forcibly presented on the sacred 
page, as to place it beyond all doubt. When God 



132 THE iisrrLUENCE or THoranT 



is about to carry out, towards any depraved man, 
his own purpose, " Let us make this man in our 
own likeness, let us form him after our own image," 
he begins by putting the thoughts in order. And 
thus God did at the first creation. "When he put 
the machinery of thought into motion, himself and 
his own fair and beauteous world were the objects 
about which the thoughts of his intelligent creature, 
man, were to be employed. Grod's communion main- 
tained the innocence and holiness of man, — kept 
his thoughts centred on the Divine nature and 
benevolence, and, until diverted from this object, 
he sinned not. In the work of creating the soul 
anew, God the Spirit begins with the thoughts. 
He engages the attention of the thoughts on 
objects remotely difi'erent from those on which 
they have been employed, — he allures them on in 
their thinkings, until they joyfully rally round the 
" new things, and old things pass away." 



m THE rORMATIO^f OF CHARACTER. 133 



SECTION II. 



The wliole universe is one grand illustration of 
influence. Every part or portion is acted on, and 
is acting in an incalculable series of movements. 
While this is true, in reference to the whole mate- 
rial world, and the fact is presented to our notice, 
in some form or other, every day, yet it is a fact 
for which we seldom think of accounting, — seldom 
think of tracing out the cause. Inertness is an 
essential property of matter ; it yields only to an 
ah extra impulse. That impulse is given by some 
cause, which has within itself the power to move. 
This power is an essential property of mind. And 
hence, all the movements of man are those which 
his will has determined, however diversified the 
motives, and rapid the process may have been, by 
which the will has arrived at the decision. " God, 
being an infinite Spirit, and coming into immediate 
contact with all parts of the universe, he is 
capable, by a mere act of will, of effecting all 
possible changes in the same manner, but in an 
infinitely higher degree, as we are capable, by an • 



134 THE INFLUENCE OF THOraST 

act of our will, of causing certain motions in tlie 
muscular parts of our body, and thus producing 
changes in the external objects around us. 

" We shall find it impossible to give any account 
of innumerable changes which are continually taking 
place in the visible world, without tracing them up 
to mind. There cannot be a clearer proof of a 
Deity, than the existence of motion." This evi- 
dently appears not to be essential to matter. " Not 
being, therefore, an original state of matter, but 
merely an incident, it must be an efiect. But since 
matter, not being intelligent, cannot be the cause 
of its own motion — and yet we cannot conceive of 
any atom beginning to move without a cause — that 
cause must be found out of itself. Whatever may 
be the nearest cause, or the number of secondary 
causes, though immeasurable portions of matter may 
be reciprocally or successively moved ; though the 
series of links in the chain through which motion 
is propagated, may be indefinitely multiplied, we 
must, in order to arrive at the origin of these 
various phenomena, ascend to mind, and terminate 
our inquiries in spirit ; nor can we account for the 
beginning, much less for the continuance and exten- 



IN THE FOEMATIOK OF CHAEACTEE. 135 

sion of motion, unless we trace it to the will of that 
Being, who is the cause of all causes — the great 
original mover in the universe. Power is therefore 
the attribute of mind ; instrumentality that of 
body."* This view of motion and influences is 
very analogous to that motion which, once begun, 
continues in a long series of influences in the 
region of mind. **But, if it is the will of the 
Author of Nature, that in the physical and inani- 
mate system nothing should be made in vain — that 
nothing should perish, and be as though it had 
never been ; how highly improbable must we feel 
it to be — how inconsistent with the general cha- 
racter of his great arrangements — that anything 
should fade and perish in the sentient and moral 
system, that, for the sake of which all others were 
organised, and to which, with all their exquisite 
harmony and beauty, they only serve the purpose 
of a scaff*olding to a temple. If no seed — no 
particle — no ray — no exhalation can lose its way 
and escape into nothing ; how much less can 
we believe that past thoughts and impressions — 
the germs of truth, and the primary causes that 
* Eev. E. HaU, A.M. 



f 



136 THE INFLUENCE OF THOUaHT 

modify a character whicli is to last for ever — 
can ever undergo a total and final annihilation ? 
Such an event would create a chasm in the history 
of mind itself, and the admission would almost 
shake our belief in its immortality." But as the 
Divine mind made the material orbs to obey 
his fiat, and to move in their appointed spheres, so 
the human mind, cherishing any given train of 
thought, has put forth an impetus which will for 
ever and for ever continue to thrill and vibrate. 
In this view, 

*' Man's soul is his own universe, wherein 
^ # # ^ # # 

Thoughts are his creatures, which run to and fro, 

And bring him pleasures from all parts and things — 

The light or shade of ecstacy or woe, 

The wide creation of imaginings : 

Things past, things present, and things yet to be, 

Mirror of history and futurity/' 

SECTION III. 

Thoughts are like seed cast into the ground ; some 
may be crushed by the foot ot the careless pas- 



IN THE FORMATION OF CHARACTEE. 137 



senger, — some may be carried away by tbe birds of 
the air, — some may perish under the infiuenee of a 
baneful atmosphere, — and others, cherished in the 
bosom of earth, may take root, spring up, and 
mature, and contribute, in a measure, to turn the 
desert into a fruitful field. And thoughts, which 
thus germinate like seed, produce after their own 
kind. To strip this subject of all figurative lan- 
guage, bad thoughts may ^ ass ihroiigli the mind, as 
swiftly as on the wings of light, and leave scarcely 
their tint or tinge behind ; but these thoughts may 
be detained, nurtured, and strengthened, till they 
become constituent parts of the mental being. Good 
thoughts may^ with equal rapidity, pass through the 
mind, like a summer's breeze, which scarcely moves 
the smallest leaf, and no trace of them is left ; but 
they may linger in the soul, become constant resi- 
• dents, and impart their own character to the dwel- 
ling they occupy. This will be found, in most 
cases, to be the history of principles, whether those 
principles be good or bad. A principle, full-grown, 
seldom enters the mind. The good and holy 
thought is the germ or sapling put into the mind, 
and it eventually becomes the firm and sturdy 



138 THE INFLUENCE OF THOUGHT 



principle, spreading out its branches, like the 
banana, reproducing and diffusing itself, until the 
whole region of mind is adorned with fertility and 
beauty. See the man, " whose delight is in the 
law of the Lord, and who meditates in it day and 
night he contents not himself with giving ex- 
pression to his hallowed enjoyment, " How precious 
are tJiy tJiouglits unto me, 0 God ! how great is the 
sum of them His mind he richly stores with 
truths, which he adopts as the principles of his 
faith and practice. He examines every sentiment 
that invites his credence, and carefully submits it 
to the unerring standard of truth, that so the 
character of its claims to his confidence may be 
determined, and be received or rejected, according 
to its harmony or discrepancy with the ^standard* 
He thus acquires Berean nobleness of character, 
and shows himself, not the playthiDg of every new 
teacher, not the easy dupe of every quack in mind 
and morals, but an investigator of opinions by the 
light of triitlt. In every question of morals and 
religion, he " searches the Scriptures to see whether 
the things he hears are so or not.'' These think- 
ings and investigatings are acts of mind, which, 



IN THE rOEMATTON OF CHABACTEB. 139 



being often repeated, issue in the formation of high 
and important principles. 

The same process is observable in the production 
of any given principles. In some minds, the pro- 
cess may be exceedingly slow, and, in others, more 
rapid, yet, in all, thinking takes the precedence of 
principle, as the cause precedes the effect, — and as 
the cause imparts its own impression to the effect, 
so the thinking gives its own moral likeness to the 
principles it produces. Tbese views will be found 
applicable alike to the history of wicked, as to the 
history of holy principles. For though the maturity 
in vice may be more rapid than, the maturity of 
holiness, yet, this is to be accounted for, on the 
groun J. of man's original bias to that which is evil 
carrying his thoughts with the rapidity and force of 
a torrent in one direction. As that torrent is re- 
strained or uni^estrained, will be the character of 
the principles brought forth. These incorporate 
themselves with the mental and moral being of the 
man. Like those studies to which Cicero refers, 
these principles of good sustain youth, delight age, 
adorn prosperity, afford a solace and a retreat in 
adversity ; they delight at home, do not hinder in 



140 



THE INFLTJElS^CE OE THOrGHT 



business, watch with us at night, journey with us 
when we journey, and wander with us in the 
country.* As this sentence is intended to show 
the constant and inseparable influence of the studies 
in which the mind has been enG:ao'ed, so the in- 
fluence of thoughts and principles are inseparable 
from the man. "As the man thinketh in his heart, 
so is he." 

JSTor is it surprising that such results should be 
produced, when a review is taken of the almost in- 
calculable number and variety of agencies, which 
are administering to the thoughts. The inimitable 
English essayist, — the writer, whose works ought to 
be in the hands of every young man, — the judicious 
and pious John Foster, of Bristol, w^hen addressing 
a young person, and urging a review of the agencies 
and actings on the mind, says, in his ow^n emphatic 
style, " Here a person of your age might pause, and 
look back with great interest on the world of cir- 
cumstances through which life has been drawn. 
.Consider what thousands of situations, appeju*ances, 

"Haec studia, adolescentiam alunt, senecUitem oblectant, 
seciindas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solatium prsebent, 
delectant domi, non iinpedmnt^ foris, pernoctant nobiscum, 
peregrinantur, rusticantiir." — Cic, jyro Archia Foeta. 



IN THE rORMATION OF CHARACTER. 141 

incidents, persons, you have been present with, each 
in its time. The review would carry you over some- 
thing like a chaos, with all the moral and all other 
elements confounded together ; and you may reflect 
till you begin almost to wonder how an individual 
retains the same essence through all the diversities, 
vicissitudes, and counteractions of influence that 
operate on it, during its progress through the con- 
fusion. While the essential being might, however, 
defy the universe to extinguish, absorb, or transmute 
it, you will find it has come out with dispositions 
and habits which will show where it has been, and 
what it has undergone. Tou may descry on it the 
marks and colours of many of the things by which 
it has, in passing, been touched or arrested. Con- 
sider the number of meetings with acquaintances, 
friends, or strangers ; the number of conversations 
you have held or heard ; the number of exhibitions 
of good or evil, virtue or vice ; the number of occa- 
sions on which you have been disgusted or pleased, 
moved to admiration or to abhorrence ; the number 
of times that you have contemplated the town, the 
rural cottage, or verdant fields ; the number of 
volumes you have read ; the times that you have 

K 



142 THE INrLUENCE OF THOrGHT 

looked over the present state of the world, or 
gone, by means of history, into past ages; the 
number of comparisons of yourself with other 
persons, alive or dead, and comparisons of them 
with one another ; the number of solitary musings, 
of solemn contemplations of night, of the suc- 
cessive subjects of thought and of animated sen- 
timents that have been tindled and extinguished. 
Add all the hours and causes of sorrow which you 
have known. Through this lengthened, and, if the 
number could be told, stupendous multiplicity of 
things, you have advanced, while all their heteroge- 
neous myriads have darted influences upon you, 
each one of them having some definable tendency. 
A traveller round the globe would not meet a 
greater variety of seasons, prospects, and winds, 
than you might have recorded of the circumstances 
capable of afiecting your character during your 
journey of life. Tou could not wish to have drawn 
to yourself the agency of a vaster diversity of 
causes; you could not wish, on the supposition 
that you had gained advantage from all these, to 
wear the spoils of a greater number of regions. 
The formation of the character from so many 



IN THE FOEMATION OF CHAEACTEE. 143 

materials reminds one of that mighty appropriating 
attraction, which, on the fanciful hypothesis that 
the resurrection should re-assemble the same par- 
ticles which composed the body before, must draw 
them from dust, and trees, and animals, from 
ocean and winds." 

A series of influences, so long and continuous, 
cannot fail to produce visible and lasting results. 

SECTION IT. 

Principles may be embraced and avowed, and 
as easily put off and laid aside, as anything else 
the man has been accustomed to put on and put 
off ; but principles produced in the mind, by the 
process of close and continued thinking, and 
strengthened by a variety of collateral influences, 
will prove like ivy, whose roots have struck into 
the cement of the castle, and shown itself in the 
very inner halls, — to attempt to root it out, you 
must endanger, if not destroy, the whole structure. 
In the case supposed, the songsters of the grove 
might supply the place of the hired minstrel; 
and the halls that were wont to resound with the 



144 THE INFLTJEJfCE OE THOUGHT 



martial air or wanton song, migbt echo the melody 
of innocence and love. This would be a change 
in the character of the place, not less remarkable 
than that seen in a mind, where new principles 
have sprung up and grown. The mind, possessing 
new principles, soon acquires new habits. It is 
frequently called by the voice of principle to deci- 
sive and vigorous doings, in which a less repug- 
nance and a greater inclination is felt in the last, 
than was felt in any former doing of the kind. 
This change of feeling has all the force of a new 
power, — a new motive. And thus the acquisition 
of habit becomes more and more easy, and at 
length becomes established and confirmed. Habits 
furnish an index to the character of the thoughts, 
as fruit furnishes an index to the character of the 
tree. Fruit falls ofi* when it is ripe; habits remain, 
and constitute the ornament, or disfigurement of 
the mind that gave them being. The man of 
desultory, confused, and obscene thinkings, will 
have no habits of perseverance, punctuality, and 
chastity. Habits originating in thought, and 
petted by thoughts, are not much unlike the spots 
of the leopard, and the blackness of the Ethiopian's 



IN THE FOEMATION OF CHARACTER. 145 

skin: to change either, is an admitted impossi- 
bility, — yet both can be effected by Omnipotence. 
Since habits are almost changeless, and changeless 
monsters tyrannising over the mind that called 
them and fashioned them into existence, the most 
strenuous exertions are required to suppress or 
banish that kind of thinking, which will issue in 
the formation of evil habits. To prevent the 
cockatrice brood, the first- discovered egg must be 
crushed. 

SECTION V. 

Moral sentiments and feelings are included in 
the view given of principles ; and these, together 
with the habits of the man, make up his character, 
Man has a physical, an intellectual, and a moral 
character, — the first arising out of his relation to 
the material world, the second out of his relation 
to the world of mind, and the third out of his 
relation to the moral government of God, In all 
three, thought has its ofSce, and thought has its 
influence. In reference to the firsts it may be 
observed, that as the less is ruled by the greater, 



146 THE INFLXJENCE OF THOUGHT 



and matter is inferior to mind, it is no wonder 
that the material man should receive his fashion 
from the mind within. The thoughts, in all their 
busy diligence, chisel out the expression of a 
man's countenance, and leave their own likeness 
upon it. It may be, that it was in reference to 
this influence of the thoughts of the wicked on 
their physical character, that the Spirit of God 
taught his prophet to leave it on record, The 
shew of their countenance doth witness against 
them." Observation confirms this statement. 
Most men have their sins written on their coun- 
tenances so plainly, that "he who runs may read." 
The whole nation can read this document, without 
the aid of an " Educational Bill ;" and every eye 
does read it, and every mind understands it, except 
his who never looks on it, but in the mirror. 
An old proverb, "A good face is the best introduc- 
tory letter," took its origin from the principle 
under consideration. Not the tint of the com- 
plexion, nor the symmetry of the features, is 
meant; but the impress, — the expression, which 
the thoughts have given. The countenance is the 
index the mind has written of itself. 



IN THE rORMATIO"N" OP CHAEACTErv. 147 

Nor does the effect of lialloioed thinhings make 
a less powerful appeal to the senses. There are 
not a few men, who, free from the cant of party 
and the demureness of hypocrisy, cannot be seen 
without the observer receiving the impression, 
these are men of Grod, — " Israelites indeed, in 
whom there is no guile." The moral atmosphere, 
in which such men move, inspires all with whom 
they associate with veneration and delight. And 
though we are not to expect that the face is 
to shine, as did Moses' when he came down from 
the mount of God, yet there are visible indications 
of abstraction from earth, and of heavenly com- 
munings, which, like lingering rays from the 
eternal throne, leave a brightness on the coun- 
tenance which no earth-born joys can impart. 

There is an influence which the thinkings of the 
mind exert on the health of the individual. 
Solomon said, " A merry heart doeth good like a 
medicine ;" alluding, doubtlessly, to the healthy 
tendency of thoughts and feelings, so well regu- 
lated as to produce an abiding and well- sustained 
cheerfulness. There is a thinking, in which some 
young men indulge, which cannot fail to produce 



148 



THE i^TLrEisCE or THOraHT 



debility and premature age; — a thinking which 
acts directly on the animal spirits, saps the consti- 
tution, and reduces the stamina of the most 
vigorous frame. Whatever contracts guilt, pro- 
duces either obduracy or depression. A burdened 
conscience is the most fatal disease. Other 
diseases are alleviated by solacing and cheering 
thoughts ; but this brings on a wounded spirit, 
which none can bear. The pain is insupportable, 
from the conviction that the wounds are self- 
inflicted. These wounds only Christ can heal. 
Thoughts were the basilisk brood, which inflicted 
these wounds. But the intellectual and moral 
training of the thoughts, under the blessing of the 
Holy Spirit, exert the most salutary influence in 
averting, to a great degree, some of the miseries 
usually attendant on old age. As it is not every 
kind of wine, so it is not every mind that becomes 
sour by the lapse -of time. Age may have some 
infirmities ; "but, after all," as Cicero^ observes, 
" this imbecility of body is more frequently occa- 
sioned by the want of discipline in youth, than by 



* De Senectute. 



IN THE rOBMATIOIf OF CHAEACTEE. 149 

the natural and necessary consequences of long 
life. A debauched and intemperate young man 
will undoubtedly, if he live, transmit weakness 
and infirmities to his latter days." These state- 
ments Cicero abundantly confirms, by., adducing 
facts from the page of history, and known illus- 
trious individuals of his own times. Among those 
illustrations is the case of Sophocles, whose melo- 
dious tones of voice, whose muscular strength and 
vigorous genius were unimpaired, long, long after 
fourscore years had passed over him. Another 
writer, * making reference to his extraordinary 
poetic genius, says, " Sophocles had attained his 
hundredth year when he composed this tragedy ;t 
in which the marks of decayed genius are so far 
from appearing, that it was deemed by the ancients 
an unrivalled master-piece of dramatic poetry,'* 
Moses lived to the age of one hundred and twenty 
years, and though, at little more than half that 
age, many may be found bowed down with infirmi- 
ties, yet his eye was not dim, nor the force 
of his strength abated." He was a man, whose 

Valerius Max. cap. viii. sect. 12 t CEdipus Col. 



150 THE INrLTJENOE OE THOUaHT 



thoughts were with God, and the inJluence was 
seen in sustaining his physical vigour. 

The influence of the thoughts in the formation 
of the intellectual character of man, is almost too 
obvious tp need a single remark. The young man, 
whose literary advantages may have been small, 
may, by reading authors most eminent for correct 
views and original thoughts, and diligently thinking 
over their sentiments and opinions, and devoting 
regularly a portion of time out of every twenty- 
four hours to this exercise, make rapid progress in 
knowledge, acquire mental vigour, and attain an 
intellectual superiority, which shall leave his more 
advantaged, though less-thinking companion, at an 
immense distance. The character of the former 
becomes distinguished by intellectual eminence; 
the character of the latter, by mental feebleness. 
The former is every day adding to his stores of 
knowledge and associates in mind; the latter 
tendeth to poverty and loneliness. The latter, if 
roused on any occasion, or by any motive, to make 
an effort of mind, may succeed in his attempt to 
shine (for weak minds aim more at brilliance than 
worth), but it will be with a lunar Irightness^ very 



IN THE rOEMATION OF CHARACTEE. 151 



transient, — with borrowed rajs, — best seen in the 
dark ; but the former will grow in wisdom, as well 
as increase in knowledge, and rise with solar glory, 
blessing as well as shining, — enriching others, as 
well as delighting him self in the beauties he beholds, 
— permanent and anticipating no change, but that 
of attaining to meridian splendour. Each man, in 
his youth, may choose for himself, and accomplish 
the object of his choice, by adopting iliat tliinJcing, 
on the result of which he may calculate with as 
much certainty as the astronomer can calculate the 
next transit of Venus. He may choose for him- 
self mental greatness, and he will attain it ; or he 
may choose that the world shall witness in him a 
mature age, combined with mental puerility, and 
he will doubtless attain it. Let him begin to regu- 
late his thoughts in reference to this object, and, 
whatever may be his other sufferings, he will be 
spared, at least, from disappointment on this sub- 
ject. He wiU economise his time, he will prefer 
one kind of feeling to another, he will select his 
companions from the ancients and the moderns, aU 
with a view to the attainment of the object of his 
choice ; as he will calculate on the influence of these 



152 THE INFLrENCE OE THOUGHT 



in the formation of tbe character he is ambitious to 
acquire. So thought Seneca when he said, " What 
happiness, and how beauteous an old age awaits 
him, who has betaken himself to the communion 
of those great minds, — who has constantly with 
him those with whom he may deliberate on every 
thing which concerns him, whom he may consult 
daily as to his own moral progress, and hear truth 
from them without contumely, praise without adu- 
lation, — to whose very similitude, by this inter- 
course, he may learn at last to form his own feebler 
nature. We are often in the habit of complaining 
that our parents, and all the circumstances of our 
birth, are not of our choice, but of our fortune. 
We have it in our power to be born as we please in 
this second birth of our genius. Of the illustrious 
minds that have preceded us, we have only to 
determine to which we wish to be allied ; and we 
are already adopted, not in the inheritance of his 
mere name, but to the nobler inheritance of every 
thing which he possessed." * Thus said Seneca ; but 
a greater authority than that of Seneca's has said, 
" That which a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
* Seneca, De Brevitate Yitae, cap. xiv. xv. 



IN THE FOEMATION OP CHARACTER. 153 

The observations which have been advanced on 
the influence of the thoughts on the physical and 
intellectual character of the man, are equally appli- 
cable to his moral character. At this, some maybe 
disposed to demur. But, however strange and un- 
accountable it may seem, it is a truth which cannot 
be denied, that some people, who reason very judi- 
ciously on other subjects, and readily admit rea- 
sonable reasons on other subjects, think, or seem to 
think, that they must treat the great subject of 
morals or religion very difl'erently, and examine it 
by different laws from those by which they examine 
all other subjects. Such persons are unwilling to 
believe that a great and spiritual revolution can be 
brought about in the character in the same way as 
any other change would be wrought on the mind, — 
the specific character of the agencies, and their 
adaptation to the proposed end, being, in any given 
cases, equally granted. This admission does not in 
the least degree militate against the scriptural doc- 
trine of regeneration being the work of the Spirit. 
It has been stated in a former part of this work,* 



* Part I. sect x. p. 61. 



154 THE lOTLrENCE or THOUaHT 

that the Spirit begins with the thoughts and feel- 
ings of the heartj and makes them the participants 
of an influence which results in the forming of the 
character after the Divine image. The existence 
and adoption of spiritual thoughts, are the incor- 
ruptible seed of truth and moral excellence sown by 
the hand of the Spirit, — growing up under Ms fos- 
tering care, and making the once barren wilderness 
of the heart as the garden of the Lord. " He that 
soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life 
everlasting." 

There is no wonder that men should become 
monsters in iniquity, when evil thoughts are in- 
dulged and cherished. The eye of God saw the evil 
thoughts in the heart of Hazael, when he instructed 
his servant Elisha to tell him of the monstrous 
character he would develop, and the monstrous 
deeds he would commit, at the slightest intimation 
of which, Hazael scornfully said, Is thy servant a 
dog, that he should do these things ? " Such an 
indignant inquiry can be accounted for only on 
one of two reasons, — either that Hazael knew not 
the thoughts which were in his mind, or that, know- 
ing them, did not believe in their influence on his 



IN THE FOKMATION OF CHAEACTEE, 155 



future character. But his subsequent history 
proved his error. 

It is imperative on every intelligent being, fre- 
quently to direct a scrutinising glance within, to 
see what is the pattern of his future character, 
according to which the thoughts are working. 
"WTien the apostle Paul looked within, and con- 
trasted his present with his former character, he 
said, " "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I 
understood as a child, I thought as a child : but 
when I became a man, I put away childish things." 
The influence of the thoughts is exceedingly great, 
from the fact that they work with unslumler- 
ing diligence. They neither sleep nor die. As 
evidence of their life and activity, they often 
rush upon us with thunder step, and lightning 
glare, and we find ourselves again in scenes 
which we imagined had for ever passed into 
oblivion. 

" And how and wliy we knov/ not, nor can trace ^ 
Home to its cloud this lightning of the mind, 
But feel the shock renewed — nor can efface 
The blight and black'ning which it leaves behind ; 
Which out of things familiar, undesigned. 



156 THE mrLTJENCE OF THOUaHT 



When least we dream of such, calls up to view 

The spectres whom no exorcism can bind, 

The cold, the changed, perchance the dead, anew, 

The mourned, the loved, the lost, too many, yet how few ! " 

Nor is this influence confined to tlie limits of 
time, — to the date of man's earthly history. What 
is known and felt now of this influence, is but a 
diminutive model, to give some idea of the working 
of the thoughts in eternity, where the soul, with 
its powers in full exercise, shall find its past 
thoughts, not only claiming and enjoying their 
right of immortality, but ministering to its misery 
or happiness, and aff'ording a living illustration of 
the truth, " He that is unjust, let him be unjust 
still : and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still : 
and he that is righteous, let him be righteous 
still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." 
These views are in perfect harmony with the 
teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ; who, in- 
structing his disciples on the eternal destinies of 
men, lays open the scenes of eternity to their view. 
He showed them a rich man in hell, calling for the 
help of the poor beggar he had despised; at his 
hand he wanted a drop of water for himself, and 



IN THE FORMATION OF CHAEA.CTEE. 157 

a sermon for his profligate brethren on earth' 
Here past thoughts were the makers of his woe. 
And when Christ shows t hem the scene of judg- 
ment, he there appeals to the designs and deeds of 
benevolence, or of selfism, which were formed and 
performed from the motive of love or hatred to 
him, and thus he awakens a memory which had 
long lived in drowsiness ; he touches a spring which 
vibrates through eternity, while it unceasingly aug- 
ments happiness, or increases woe, as it rings in 
the ear of the undying soul the emphatic " Son, 
rememher .^"^ 

Nor can it be said that our dreams are altogetlier 
uninfluenced ly our waking tJioughts, Dreams, 
when they have been contrary to the moral taste 
and principles of the individual, have occasioned 
much distress to the devoted and intelligent Chris- 
tian. Dreams are not a correct criteria of the 
moral state, though they are sometimes the reflec- 
tions of our waking thoughts c The faculties which 
give the thoughts their moral character, are inac- 
tive during the process of dreaming. It seldom, 
very seldom, happens, that the dreams of sleep are 
in direct opposition to the thoughts of wakeful - 

L 



158 THE IKELrElSrCE OF THorasT 

ness. Upon the subject of dreams being indica- 
tions of character, Sir Thomas Brown * observes, 
" However these (dreams) may be fallacious con- 
cerning outward events, yet they be truly signifi- 
cant at home, and thereby we may more sensibly 
understand ourselves. Alexander would have hardly 
run away in the combats of sleep, nor Demosthenes 
have stood stoutly to it. Persons of radical inte- 
grity will not easily be perverted in their dreams, 
nor noble minds do pitiful things in sleep." A 
mind much in commerce with the service of Satan 
and sin, must not expect visions of heaven. Wicked 
men shrink back with indescribable horror from an 
eternal dream. A writer,t not more distinguished 
for his talent than for his infidel insinuations, on 
more than one occasion doubted the theory he bad 
avowedly embraced ; and on such an occasion, when 
thinking of the Hum ism, — of death being an 
eternal sleep, he says, " It has often crossed my 
mind, during moments of gloomy scepticism, the 
possibility that the last sleep may not be dreamless, 
Pancy an endless dream of horror. It is too dread- 

* Works, vol. iv. p. 357. Wilkin's Edition, 1835. 
t Byron. 



n?" THE FORMATIOIS' OF CHABACTEE. 159 

ful to think of; this thought alone would lead 
the veriest clod of animated clay to aspire after 
immortality." Even Byron shrunk from the dream, 
the eternal dream, his own thoughts could supply. 

Dreams present a greater variety, and require a 
more extensive classification, than almost any other 
class of mental phenomena. To go into the meta- 
physical investigation of dreaming, would be a 
departure from the object proposed in this little 
work. The youthful bard,^ who caught the inspi- 
ration of Heaven, and the mantle of Milton, speaks 
thus of dreams : — 

" Some dreams were useless, moved by tiu'bid course 
Of animal disorder ; not so all. 
Deep moral lessons some impressed, that nought 
Could afterwards deface ; and oft in di-eams 
The master-passion of the soul displayed 
His huge deformity, concealed by day. 
Warning the sleeper to beware, awake : 
And oft in dreams the reprobate and vile, 
Unpardonable sinner, — as he seemed 
Toppling upon the perilous verge of hell. 
In dreadful apparition, saw, before 
His vision, pass the shadows of the damned ; 
And saw the glare of hollow, cursed eyes, 



* PoUok. 



160 THE IITELUEFOE OF THOUGHT 



Spring from the skirts of the infernal night ; 
And saw the souls of wicked men, new deady 
By devils hearsed into the fiery gulf ; 
And heard the burning of the endless fiames ; 
And heard the weltering of the waves of wrath ; 
And sometimes, too, before his fancy, passed 
The worm that never dies, writhing its folds 
In hideous sort, and with eternal death 
Held horrid colloquy, giving the wretch 
Unwelcome earnest of the woe to come." 

SECTIOlSr VI, 

Man is a social being. As a thinking, intelligent 
creature, be holds intercourse with his fellow-men ; 
and, through this intercourse, he exerts a powerful 
influence for good or for evil. Each man creates 
his own moral atmosphere, and brings it to influ- 
ence others as imperceptibly, but as eflectually, as 
the atmosphere has its influence on the physical 
constitution. The science of mental influence is 
m its babyhood, when compared with the disco- 
veries which will yet be made. How mind acts on 
mind, cannot be very satisfactorily described. No 
more can be known than what "the Great Teacher" 
has taught of the Spirit acting on the human 
mind : " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 



m THE FORMATIOIS" OF CHARACTER. 161 

thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth." Here 
are volition, reality, evidence, and extensive results, 
— and extending beyond all calculation. Such is 
the influence of thought on the minds of others, — 
such is mental influence. "With this power at 
command, and ever active, it is not difficult to 
believe that "no man lives to himself.'' The influ- 
ence of his thinking must be felt in some direction, 
and for a beneficial or injurious purpose. A 
thought, imported into a mind, may exert a most 
powerful influence over the present and the eternal 
condition,— and when the tongue which gave it 
utterance, or the hand that penned it, shall be min- 
gled with the dust of the earth, the thought shall 
still be thrilling on, till it shall out-tire the burning 
sun and glittering stars. Thoughts begin, but 
never end. A thought originated, may be the 
beginning of an angelic band to bless you in time, 
and give you delight in eternity ; or the first of a 
demon brood, to worry you in all the scenes of 
earth, and haunt you for ever through the regions 
of an unseen world. This influence acquires 
importance from the several relations in which man 



162 THE ii?PLrE]srcE or thotj&ht 

is placed. The IrotJier maj, because he has felt not 
the responsibility of his relation, or abused the 
confidence it has inspired, — because he has engen- 
dered evil thoughts, giving an impulse to feelings 
never to be recalled, — because he has trifled with 
the scruples of conscience, and svrept ofi* the beau- 
teous bloom of virtue and innocencCj — because he 
has benumbed the heart, and put the soul on a 
declivity, where the rapidity of descending to perdi- 
tion is enhanced by progress, — because tTie hrotJier 
has done all this, he may be regarded as a worse 
murderer than Cain, inasmuch as the ruin of the 
soul is a greater sin than the murder of the body. 
But there are some brothers who indulge in a vir- 
tuous and religious thinking, and their influence is 
salutary. In many families, the elder brother, bring- 
ing his influence to bear on the younger branches, 
has been instrumentally the saviour of the family. 

The companion gathers strength to his influence, 
in proportion to the confidence and affection which 
may exist. Companionship has been the medium 
of influence, for the salvation of the few, and for 
the ruin of many. Many are the snares secretly 
laid to entrap the youthful mind, while the vile 



m THE FORMATION OF CHAEACTER. 163 



seducer seems to be intent on the gratification of 
his own vanity, and perfectly indifferent to the fate 
of his victim. " The man who, in the pride of his 
fancied intellectual superiority, awakens in the mind 
of another one serious doubt on the subject of 
Divine truth, or he who, in the pursuit of ungodly 
pleasure, allures a fellow-creature into a participa- 
tion of his own profligacy, thereby opens a flood- 
gate which Omnipotence alone can shut ; and were 
a prophetic eye to take a survey of the future con- 
sequences of one such action, it might see there the 
commencement of a train of evils as appalling in 
their nature, as they are interminable in their dura- 
tion. The instant such a man has succeeded in 
efiacing the religious impressions, or corrupting the 
moral principles of another, he has put a principle 
of evil into operation, which it is utterly beyond his 
power to control ; he has inflicted an injury which 
the wealth of worlds, if it were at his command, 
could not repair, — and an injury, too, of which he 
can neither see the termination nor calculate the 
extent ; the victim of his own artifice is prepared 
to perpetrate the same crimes, and to entail upon 
others the same ruin ; and thus may the effects of 



164 THE INFLrENCE OF THOUGHT 

his sin continue to be perpetuated and felt when he 
himself is forgotten, or when his memory lives only 
in the book of that remembrance in connexion with 
its consequences.'* To the truth of these remarks, 
the experience of every day bears melancholy and 
decisive evidence ; for who has not known them 
exemplified, and to a fearful extent, too, even within 
the sphere of his own observation ? The character 
of the man is formed by the company he keeps. 

The minister of religion has, to a great extent, 
the formation of character under his influence. 
The devout, the holy, happy man, who exemplifies, 
in bis life and practice, the truths he proclaims, 
presents a powerful influence constantly bearing on 
the minds of bis flock; and they receive the impres- 
sion, take the cast of tbe mould so constantly 
applied, and exhibit a character corresponding with 
the moral image of him whom they respect and 
revere — 

" And, as a bird each fond endearment tries, 
To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, 
He tries each art, reproves each dull delay. 
Allures to brighter worlds, and leads the way." 

* Dr. Gordon of Edinburgh. 



IN THE FORMATIOlSr OF CHARACTEB. 165 

While, on the contrary, the time-serving, shuffling, 
hypocritical, inconsistent man, who bears the sacred 
office, and lives an unhallowed life, is " a savour of 
death unto death." The mischief he does, ends 
not in the scoffer saying, " Like people, like priest." 
The injury he does is incalculable. The language 
of PoUok, in its application to such a man, is 
exceedingly appropriate. 

" Most guilty, villanous, dishonest man ! 
WoK in the clothing of the gentle lamb ! 
Dark traitor in Messiah's holy camp ! 
Leper in saintly garb ! assassin masked 
In Virtue's robe ! vile hypocrite accursed I 
I strive in vain to set his evil forth ! 
The words that should sufficiently accurse 
And execrate such reprobate, had need 
Come glowing from the lips of eldest hell. 
Among the saddest in the den of woe, 
Thou sawst him saddest, 'mong the damned now damned." 

Next to the minister of religioUy in the impor- 
tance and extent of moral influence on the minds 
of others, is the mother. The moral character of 
children is almost at a mother's option what it 
shall be. Not a few, now occupying stations of res- 
pectability, usefulness, and honour, have to trace 



166 THE INTLTOKCE OE THOUGHT 



the first germ of their moral excellence to a thought 
or a prayer which fell from a mother's lips, like a 
drop of Heaven from the finger of God, into their 
hearts. Or, it may be, that some inconsistency, or 
series of inconsistencies, observed in the parent, 
strengthened the natural enmity of the heart, and 
that heart continues far from Grod by wicked works. 

But conjectures are vain: only the disclosures 
of eternity, with its miseries and its joys, can fully 
make known what has been the extent of the 
influence of one mind in forming the character of 
others. 

The limits the writer at first prescribed for this 
work have already been exceeded. His effort shall 
be, that the remaining thoughts shall be as con- 
densed as practicable. 

SECTION YII. 

The effect, or the influence, of thoughts, may be 
imagined, but never calculated. Each benevolent 
institution, now the glory of our country, may be 
traced to one thought, or the thinkings of one 
individual. Two illustrations may suffice. The 
" British and Foreign Bible Society," to the thought 



IN THE FORMATION OF CHAEACTEE. 167 

of the Eev. m. Charles, of Bala;— the Anti- 
Slavery Society," to the thought of Thomas Clark- 
son, Esq. The same principle of influence is appli- 
cable to other institutions. That eminent persons 
have been raised up, to fill important and extensive 
spheres of usefulness, may be traced to the think- 
ings ot some individual, or to one thought. An 
afiectionate sister expressed her solicitude for the 
salvation of a brother; and Persia receives the 
word of Christ, in its own language, from the 
hands of a Henry Martyn. A sermon thought 
at Basingstoke, Hants, was the means of extensive 
blessing on the coast of South America, in bringing 
out John Smith, the martyred missionary of Deme- 
rara.* The pious conversation, the thoughts of 
anxiety for the salvation of a young man, expressed 
in the Tabernacle Yard of the Metropolis, have 
reverberated over the Pacific, by raising up the 
heroic and sainted John "Williams for the South 
Sea Islands. And the intrepid, the devoted and 

* " It may be recollected that Mr. Smith was first impressed 
with the importance of missionary exertions, by hearing Mr, 
Jefferson, sen., preach his missionary sermon in London, 
May, 1811." — Memoirs of J, B. Jefferson, hy J, Whitridge, 
p. 121, note. 



168 THE raPLTJElS-CE OE THOUaHT. 

enterprising MoflFat caught his missionary inspira- 
tion (instrumentally) from a thought suggested by 
seeing a placard announcing a missionary meeting. 
Dr. Philip for Africa, Dr. Morrison for China, and 
others, furnish ample and forcible illustrations 
of the principle, — the influence of thoughts on 
the minds and the character of others. Many 
others might be added, showing 

" That a small drop of ink, 
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces 
That which makes thousands, aye, and millions, think." 



169 



PAET IV. 

THE IKFLUENCE OP MEKTAL HABITS ON 
rN"DIVIDUAL PHYSIOG^^OMY. 

Mind is the cause of motion. It is at one time 
acting upon mind, and at another time acting on 
matter. Thoughts and feelings are the ministers of 
its volitions, and the exponents of its designs. 
There are some processes of mental action in 
which the thoughts — the intellectual powers — only 
are engaged ; thus it is in pursuing the abstract 
sciences. There are others in which the affections, 
^ the sympathies, the emotional faculties, are most 
powerfully exercised ; thus, when the youth is 
suddenly summoned from his college studies to 
attend the sick chamber of a beloved and only 
surviving parent, and detained to witness the 
ebbings and Sowings of the tide of life until the 
last surge has broken, and the quiet and silence of 



I. 



170 THE INrLtrEKCE OF MENTAL HABITS 



death has begun to reign. In such a scene as this, 
the emotional has the ascendancy over the intel- 
lectual faculties as much as the intellectual had 
over the emotional, when in the full ardour of his 
budding machood he was absorbed in the studies 
the curriculum prescribed. A few more days he 
lingers on the spot, where the pale corpse of a 
beloved mother, preparations for the last rites, and 
the deep solemnity of the funeral, all combine 
to appeal powerfully to his emotions, while the 
inward thought of orphanhood and loneliness 
administers its full power to give intensity and 
permanence to the feelings awakened. This is 
a crisis in his mental history. Though he return 
to his college course, yet his habits of close intel- 
lectual toiling will be associated with a chastened 
and solemn feeling. 

The powerful excitement which the mind has 
experienced, the circumstances which combined 
to continue the thoughts and feelings produced, 
the abiding consciousness of the loss sustained, 
and the conviction that that loss is irreparable, aid 
the mind, almost imperceptibly, in forming habits 
of serious reflection, and of sympathy for others 



ON INDIVIDUAL PHYSIOaNOMT. I7l 



under similar circumstances. Virgil showed his 
knowledge of human nature, when he describes the 
Sidonian Dido, after she had suffered a severe 
calamity, as saying — 

*']Sron ignara mali, miseris succorrere disco." 

The mental habits of serious reflection and of 
sympathy would not be long formed before they 
produced visible effects upon the physiognomy 
of the young man. The whole contour of his face 
would be speedily altered. 

Every state of the mind has its appropriate 
symbol on the human counteuance, which is 
exhibited with inconceivable rapidity and accuracy. 
But a mental habit is a state of mind indulged, 
cherished, and incorporated in the character of the 
individual. The symbol of any habit appears 
so frequently as to leave its own impression, and 
fix its indelible stamp. To take a familiar illus- 
tration : the pure smile is the usual exponent 
of the heart's pleasure and the mind's approval, — 
a symbol of inward happiness. And there are 
some faces ever mantled with a joyous radiance, — 
the gathered remnants of oft-repeated smiles, — the 
halo of the happy mind. This is only to be seen 



172 THE INFLUENCE OF MENTAL HABITS 

where happiness is enjoyed, not as an occasional 
emotion, but as the habit of the individual* 

And there are other faces which seem as if they 
had never known a gleam of joy, or if a smile 
had^ ever visited them, it was so hasty in its visit, 
that it left no impression behind, no sign it had 
been there, nor any promise of its return. Not 
that these minds are strangers to occasions of 
enjoyment, but their mental habits are too restless, 
too fretful to enjoy happiness as a habit. The 
physiognomy of this latter class is the legible pro- 
clamation that they need a large concurrence of 
circumstances harmoniously combining to give 
them a small degree of pleasure, while that of the 
former class tells that their mental habits and 
resources are of that order, that they can be happy 
even when many adverse and untoward circum- 
stances may arise. 

The same mode of illustration may be carried 
out in reference to the intelligent and well-discip- 
lined mind, the thoughtful brow, the calm but ex- 
pressive eye, the mind-pervading face, where every 
pore glows with the light of an indwelling and active 
intelligence. This idea is beautifully expressed by 



OK INDIYIDUAL PHTSIOaNOMT. 173 

the Eev, C. "Wolfe, the author of the elegy on the 
death of Sir John Moore. 

Twas not thy face, though lovely fair, 

It was not that that won me ; 
But it was thy soul that was beaming there, 

It was that that undone me." 

This may be contrasted with the indolent and 
uncultivated mind, and it has its truthful exponent 
sometimes in a face which has all the advantages of 
exquisite symmetry of features aud healthful com- 
plexion to make it beautiful, but there is "the lack 
lustre " eye, — the vacant stare, — the pervading un- 
meaning aspect, — symbols which, if deciphered at 
all, seem to read. Mind not at ho:sie here. 

But important as these considerations are, in 
relation to the intellectual habits of the mind, they 
are still more important in reference to its moral 
habits, for these have an equal influence on the 
physiognomy, though they may require a closer ob- 
servation, and a more experienced eye to discern 
them. How true are the words of Scripture on 
this point, especially in reference to the wicked and 
• profligate mind, " Tlie shew of U^eir countenance 
doth witness against them ; and theij decla/re their sin 

M 



174 THE INFLUENCE OF MENTAL HABITS 



as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe mito their soul ! 
for they have rewarded evil unto themselves " (Isaiah 
iii. 9). However persons may imagine that they sin 
secretly, yet the mind's register of its doings is 
published to every observer in the expression of the 
countenance. Every eye can read this register; 
for its symbols are legible to all, and they need no 
interpreter. Death is the sentence incurred in 
consequence of Adam's sin and guilt ; but some 
men seem impatient to have the sentence executed, 
and for this purpose employ their evil passions as 
executionerSj'whicJi do their work by the slow and 
sure tortures they inflict; and then engrave a 
record of their doings in indelible characters on 
the countenance. How many sins blanch the face 
of youth with a paleness more marked in its aspect 
than that which clothes the cheek of the very aged 
virtuous man. The inward shame of guilt is 
written in the downcast look. The pangs of an 
accusing conscience covers the face with gloom and 
confusion. The consciousness of sinful habits 
makes a man turn his eyes from the eye of his 
fellow-man, as if afraid lest any should look in 
at the windows of the soul and see its double 



our INDIVIDUAL PHYSIO aNOMY. 175 

purpose, and its deep haunts of inward wickedness. 
It was so with Cain when the purpose of murder 
was in his heart ; for it is said he was " wroth and 
his countenance fell. Solomon says, " Tlie wicked 
man Jiardeneth Ms face^^ (Prov. xxi. 29). Did 
some men know how well their sins are known to 
their fellow-men, and that by the sign manual of 
their own minds on their faces, they would retire 
into obscurity and shun the scrutinizing eye of 
the intelligent and virtuous. But if the wicked 
man is thus known, and his sins thus abhorred by 
all virtuous society, surely he is better known 
by that God who looks not on the outward appear- 
ance only, but on the heart, the seat and source of 
the action which produces these visible and fearful 
results. 

Hypocrisy, though associated wdth a habit of 
putting on the semblance of holiness, has its 
legible exponents, which are not easily mistaken. 
The very frequency with which a sanctimonious 
appearance is assumed, may produce an elongated 
physiognomy and a rigidness of the features ; but 
in the face of the hypocrite there wiU be ever 
wanting that glowing beauty and glory of the 



176 THE INFLrEI?"CE OP MENTAL HABITS 

countenance, which holiness of heart alone can 
produce, — a glory which defies age and disease and 
death to efiace The whole of the hypocrite's life 
is a mistake; for he designs to deceive Grod and 
man, and he persuades himself that he succeeds, 
whereas he deceives only himself, while God knows 
the hollowness of all his pretences, and observing 
men can see under the thin vail of outward 
sanctity the deeply chiselled lines of gross passions 
and sinful habits. "As a man thiiiketh in Ms 
heart so is he^^ in the sight of men, as well as 
in the sight of Grod. So is he morally and 
physically. And though Grod has not allowed man 
to see the heart of his fellow-man, he has greatly 
compensated for this prohibition, by establishing a 
law of our nature, — that the heart should give its 
own history in a handwriting that may be easily 
read and understood, and that handwriting is the 
individual physiognomy, which the child cannot 
look on without forming some idea of its meaning. 

True religion, when by the Spirit of Grod it 
becomes a habit of mind, produces a visible and 
most delightful result. A soul under Divine in- 
fluence must be filled with deep thinkings and 



ON INDIYIDUAL PHYSIOaNOMY. 177 



powerful emotions, and these as abiding habits, — 
habits acquiring strength, and concurring to form 
the character after the pattern of Christ, in a great 
degree obliterate the image and superscription of 
the power to which the soul was formerly sub- 
jected, and write out the signs of the new king- 
dom into which the soul is introduced. Medita- 
tion and prayer, and what is more efficient still, 
continued commtmings with Grod, are the delighted 
exercises of "the soul under the sanctifying opera- 
tions of the Holy Spirit. These exercises becoming 
habitual, keep the soul " beholding the glory of the 
Lord, until it is changed into the same image even 
as by the Spirit of the Lord.'* And such a trans- 
formation of the soul has its corresponding effect 
on the human countenance. It was so with ancient 
saints, when they " looked unto the Lord and they 
were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed." 

The conclusion of these thoughts is, that if the 
young would deprecate the mark of the beast, and 
desire the beauty of genuine piety, let them in 
early life seek the sanctifying influences of the 
Holy Spirit, that under his gracious operations 
thej may possess the holy principles which can 



178 THE INTLUENCE OF MENTAL HABITS 

make them sincere in the sight of God, and sound 
in his statutes. In the days of Christ there were 
many who, with unwashed faces and with long 
prayer, " appeared unto men to fast, and they had 
their reward." But, be ye not as these hypocrites 
were ; be ye in heart and soul consecrated to the 
service of Grod, live much in secret communion 
with him, then shall He who seeth in secret reward 
you openly, and men who witness the results of 
your inwrought piety shall be constrained to say, 
^'Ye are the children of God." They shall see 
and acknowledge that the beauty of the Lord our 
God is upon you. There is no beauty like the 
beauty of holiness, and this beauty never appears 
so splendid as when it adorns the character of the 
young. 

Much more might be said and written on this 
interesting and extensive topic. It has been our 
object merely to give a few hints which may afford 
to our youthful readers material for thinking. 
And our design will be accomplished, if any shall 
be induced to seek earnestly the aid of the Holy 
Spirit, to enable them to adopt and cultivate those 
mental habits of thought and feeling, which shall 



ON INDIVIDUAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 179 



be in harmony with the mind of Christ, that the 
influence of these habits may cause them to pre- 
sent in their physiognomy and deportment results 
which shall " commend the Gospel of Christ to the 
consciences of all men as in the sight of God.'* 
Let religion in early life be to you, not a thing for 
an occasion, but a habit of mind ; then shall it be 
the joy of your countenance m health ; your solace 
in affliction, your support in death, and your glad- 
ness in eternity. 

In conclusion, young men, permit the writer 
to entreat your attention to these " Thoughts upon 
Thought," as to the thoughts of a friend, most 
sincere and ardent in his desires to see you, what 
you may be, and what you cm be, — the best bene- 
factors of your species, by seeking an intellectual 
and moral eminence for yourselves, and by exert- 
ing your influence to give a new and improved 
moral tone to the class to which you belong. And 
there is one encouragement arising from the fact, 
that in exkctlj the same ratio that a young man 
improves his own mind and augments his mental 
resources, he enhances and renders more benign 



180 THE INFLTJENCE OF MEIfTAL HABITS 



bis own moral influence. Another encouragement 
is derived from the happy results which must arise 
from the exertion of this influence on the cha- 
racter of others. All the generous feelings of an 
enlightened and a renewed mind must be highly- 
gratified in witnessing a reckless, dissipated youth, 
forsaking his ways of foUy and his thoughts of sin, 
and turning to Grod — to ways of wisdom and 
thoughts of virtue. This may, in its beginning, be 
as feeble as the drop that first gives a dewy wet- 
ness to the stratum ; but gathering magnitude and 
strength in its progress, it proves itself " a well of 
wat^r springing up to everlasting life." To wit- 
ness such a scene in the world of mind, is not 
less interesting than that which is seen in the 
material world, when you see the stream the little 
child can turn with its hand, continuing to flow 
and increasing until it becomes the mighty river, 
or the expansive sea, throwing its arms around 
islands, and washing the shores of continents. 
» Eemember, young man, that neutrality in mind 
and morals is an impossibility. You must be in- 
juring yourself, and injuring others, or acquiring 
good for yourself, and doing good to others. And 



ON IIS^DIVIDTJAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 181 



since the injury you are exhorted to shun, or the 
good you are invited to seek, associates itself with 
your character in time, and your destiny in eter- 
nity — since the decision in your own case, for good 
or for evil, may involve the happiness or misery of 
thousands, who may come directly or indirectly, 
nearly or remotely, within the sphere of your in- 
fluence — since the time of life at which you are 
now arrived, is that most favourable for you to 
cast the die of your future character — since the 
possession of health, reason, and life is held by a 
most uncertain tenure^ — since thoughts, words, and 
deeds, are irrevocable, be it your concern to have 
your own mind and heart set right by the Spirit of 
Grod ; that while " no man lives to himself," and 
some live for the ruin of others, you may be ambi- 
tious to live for the benefit of all with whom you 
associate. 



E. K. B'JKX, PE.INTER, HOLBORJf HILL. 



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